Study and Industrialization of Computational Methods for Orbital Maneuvers

Sammanfattning: The use of electric propulsion is a watershed in the space field. Indeed, due to its eÿciency in term of mass consumption, the actors of the space industries see in this piece of technology a means to manufacture lighter satellites and to launch them at lower cost. To face with this new market, industries need to develop new tools to handle these satellites and their missions. This report will elaborate on the methods used to compute maneuvers for all-electric spacecraft. One of the main phases during satellite operations is maneuvering to ensure on the one hand a correct configuration to achieve the mission and on the other hand the integrity of the satellite. The present work is focused on the computation of the orbital maneuvers during the early phase of the mission: orbit raising. Due to the characteristics of electric propulsion, an overall approach provided by the application of the optimal control theory is required to compute these maneuvers performed by low-thrust engines. This report will develop the use of an indirect method based on the Pontryagin minimum principle. Two types of problems related to the constraints during the space missions are presented. Because electric maneuvers are longer than chemical maneuvers, it is usually necessary to seek to minimize the duration of a maneuver. The second interesting performance is the remaining propellant mass to achieve the mission: therefore, the minimization of the mass consumption during the maneuver is the second performance considered in the report. During the internship, a JAVA implementation of the resolution of these two problems has been done. The report will present the preliminary results as well as the encountered difficulties and some possible solutions.