Direct Optimization of Low-thrust Many-revolution Earth-orbit Transfers  

作　　者：Gao Yang Academy of Opto-Electronics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190,China 

出　　处：《Chinese Journal of Aeronautics》2009年第4期426-433,共8页中国航空学报（英文版）

基　　金：National Natural Science Foundation of China (10603005)

摘　　要：Low-thrust Earth-orbit transfers with 10^- 5-order thrust-to-weight ratios involve a large number of orbital revolutions which poses a real challenge to trajectory optimization. This article develops a direct method to optimize minimum-time low-thrust many-revolution Earth-orbit transfers. A parameterized control law in each orbit, in the form of the true optimal control, is proposed, and the time history of the parameters governing the control law is interpolated through a finite number of nodal values. The orbital averaging method is used to significantly reduce the computational workload and the trajectory optimization is conducted based on the orbital averaging dynamics expressed by nonsingular equinoctial elements. Furthermore, Earth＇s shadowing and perturbation effects are taken into account. The optimal transfer problem is thus converted to the parameter optimization problem that can be solved by nonlinear programming. Taking advantage of the mapping between the parameterized control law and the Lyapunov control law, a technique is proposed to acquire good initial guesses for optimization variables, which results in enlarged convergence domain of the direct optimization method. Numerical examples of optimal Earth-orbit transfers are presented.Low-thrust Earth-orbit transfers with 10^- 5-order thrust-to-weight ratios involve a large number of orbital revolutions which poses a real challenge to trajectory optimization. This article develops a direct method to optimize minimum-time low-thrust many-revolution Earth-orbit transfers. A parameterized control law in each orbit, in the form of the true optimal control, is proposed, and the time history of the parameters governing the control law is interpolated through a finite number of nodal values. The orbital averaging method is used to significantly reduce the computational workload and the trajectory optimization is conducted based on the orbital averaging dynamics expressed by nonsingular equinoctial elements. Furthermore, Earth＇s shadowing and perturbation effects are taken into account. The optimal transfer problem is thus converted to the parameter optimization problem that can be solved by nonlinear programming. Taking advantage of the mapping between the parameterized control law and the Lyapunov control law, a technique is proposed to acquire good initial guesses for optimization variables, which results in enlarged convergence domain of the direct optimization method. Numerical examples of optimal Earth-orbit transfers are presented.

关 键 词：low thrust orbital transfer optimization direct method orbital averaging Lyapunov method 

分 类 号：V442[航空宇航科学与技术—飞行器设计]