Two Direct Low Thrust Trajectory Optimization Techniques

Abstract

Direct low thrust trajectory optimization techniques that reduce the optimization problem in the class of continuous functions to a nonlinear programming problem are described. Two direct low thrust trajectory optimization methods are implemented; one of them is based on the optimization of thrust acceleration and the other optimizes the impulses approximating the thrust arcs. These methods are compared using a sample problem of transfer from Earth to Mars in terms of runtime, the number of iterations, and the size of the convergence domains. The computations are performed on a personal computer using MATLAB and on a multiprocessor computer.