Low-Thrust Transfer Orbit Design Based on Lyapunov Feed Back Control Law

Abstract

A novel low-thrust orbit transfer design method is presented which is based on the knowledge of optimal thrust direction and optimal location for changing each of the orbit elements and the concept of Lyapunov feedback control. In this method, a set of equinoctial elements is utilized to avoid the singularities in dynamical equation of classical orbit elements. A thruster switch law is derived by analyzing the effectivity of the changing of each orbit elements. The thrust will be cut-off if the effectivity is below a specified level. When on, the thrust is a constant. The two-body dynamics model is used in this method. The method needs few input parameters. By sequential quadratic programming (SQP), these parameters could be adjusted and performance index could be maximized. This method is a simple way to estimate key parameters of a low-thrust orbit transfer and could also give an accurate initial guesses for the future optimization