Minimum Fuel Low-Thrust Transfers for Satellites Using a Permanent Magnet Hall Thruster

Thais Carneiro Oliveira,Antonio F B A Prado,José Leonardo Ferreira,Evandro Marconi Rocco

doi:10.1155/2013/945030

Thais Carneiro Oliveira, Antonio F B A Prado + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/945030

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Abstract

Most of the satellite missions require orbital maneuvers to accomplish its goals. An orbital maneuver is an operation where the orbit of a satellite is changed, usually applying a type of propulsion. The maneuvers may have several purposes, such as the transfer of a satellite to its final orbit, the interception of another spacecraft, or the adjustment of the orbit to compensate the shifts caused by external forces. In this situation it is essential to minimize the fuel consumption to allow a greater number of maneuvers to be performed, and thus the lifetime of the satellite can be extended. There are several papers and studies which aim at the fuel minimization in maneuvers performed by space vehicles. In this context, this paper has two goals: (i) to develop an algorithm capable of finding optimal trajectories with continuous thrust that can fit different types of missions and constraints at the same time and (ii) to study the performance of two propulsion devices for orbital maneuvers under development at the Universidade de Brasilia, including a study of the effects of the errors in magnitude of these new devices.

Highlights

The present paper is concerned with the optimization of spacecraft trajectories with minimum fuel consumption that uses a low thrust as a propulsion system
This first maneuver described has a constraint at the pitch angle, in order to test this capability of the proposed algorithm
The second part of this work was to simulate the optimal maneuvers found by the algorithm proposed here in a more realistic environment, which can consider errors on the actuator that was not considered in the search for the optimal maneuver

Summary

Introduction

The present paper is concerned with the optimization of spacecraft trajectories with minimum fuel consumption that uses a low thrust as a propulsion system. This type of propulsion system is the most economical type available in aerospace technology. It assumes that a force with a low magnitude is applied during a certain time to change the trajectory of the spacecraft. Lawden [1, 2] was one of the first to use this idea and showed a maneuver between two points spending minimum fuel He defined the concept of “primer vector,” the Lagrange multiplier associated with the velocity, which is used to provide the conditions for optimal trajectories

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