Optimal two-impulse rendezvous with terminal tangent burn considering the trajectory constraints

Abstract

The two-impulse orbital rendezvous problem with a terminal tangent burn between coplanar elliptical orbits is studied by considering a lower bound on perigee radius and an upper bound on apogee radius for the transfer orbit. This problem requires that two spacecraft arrive at the rendezvous point with the same arrival flight-path angle after the same flight time. The admissible range of the final true anomaly that meets the perigee and apogee constraints is obtained in closed form. The revolution number of the transfer orbit is expressed as a function of the true anomaly and the revolution numbers of the initial and final orbits. All the feasible solutions are obtained with a bound on the revolution number of the final orbit. Then, the minimum-fuel one is determined by comparing their costs. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to obtain all the feasible solutions for given initial impulse points and the optimal solution with the initial coasting arc. Numerical results show that the minimum-fuel solution for the terminal tangent burn rendezvous is close to that for the cotangent rendezvous when the rendezvous time is long enough; however, the cotangent rendezvous may not exist when the rendezvous time is short.