Coulomb-Force Based Control Methods for an
n-Spacecraft Reconfiguration Maneuver
Author(s)
Swenson, Jason C.
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Abstract
In an electrically-charged space plasma environment, spacecraft Coulomb forces are shown
as a potential propellant-free alternative for an n-spacecraft formation reconfiguration maneu ver with nd deputy spacecraft. Two Coulomb force based methods (and one method without
Coulomb forces) for reconfiguration maneuvers are developed, tested, and evaluated. Method
1a applies Direct Multiple Shooting in order to calculate the optimal thrust inputs of a min imum fuel trajectory. Method 1b uses the results from Method 1a to compare the optimal
thrust input to the set of all possible resultant Coulomb force vectors at each point in time
along a trajectory. Method 2, formulated from optimal control theory, solves directly for nd
spacecraft charge states at each point in time with Clohessy-Wiltshire relative dynamics and
minimizes the final relative state vector error. The overall performance of Method 2 is shown
to be superior than that of Method 1b in terms of both relative state vector error and total
computational time. Furthermore, Method 2 shows performance comparable to the optimal
minimum fuel trajectory calculated in Method 1a.
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Date
2018-05-01
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Text
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Masters Project
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