Multiobjective Mission Planning for Multiple Geosynchronous Spacecraft Refueling

Abstract

This paper studies the multiple geosynchronous spacecraft refueling problem (MGSRP) with multiple servicing spacecraft (Ssc) and fuel depots (FDs). In the mission scenario, multiple Ssc and FDs are parked in the geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) initially. Ssc start from FDs and maneuver to visit and refuel multiple GEO targets with known demands. These capacitated Ssc are expected to rendezvous with fuel-deficient GEO targets and FDs for the purpose of delivering the fuel stored in FDs to GEO targets. The objective is to find a set of Pareto-optimal solutions with minimum fuel cost and mission duration. The MGSRP is a much more complex variant of multidepot vehicle routing problems mixing discrete and continuous variables. A two-nested optimization model is built. We propose a new multiobjective hybrid particle swarm optimization to solve the outer-loop problem, and the design variables are the refueling sequence, task assignment, time distribution, and locations of FDs. In the inner-loop problem, branch and bound method is used to find the optimal decision variable for a given outer-loop solution. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and validity of the proposed approach.