Guidance Strategy and Fast Robustness Analysis for Space Debris Flyby

Abstract

Envisioning the scenario of space debris inspection by orbital flyby, this paper investigates the guidance strategy and fast robustness analysis method considering the relative state constraints. First, the corrected state transition matrix is derived to predict and correct the perturbed relative state at the flyby moment. Based on the state transition matrix, a free-flight corridor model is established to characterize the maximum allowed magnitude of the deviation, which can quickly estimate the robustness of the trajectory under uncertainties and circumvent intensive numerical sampling. The corresponding optimization, with four norm-extreme constraints, can be solved by a proposed double-layer algorithm with proven convergence. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the guidance algorithm is effective, and the free-flight corridor can accurately and efficiently reflect the robustness of the nominal trajectory.