Optimal trajectories for spacecraft rendezvous (Q946319)

This paper describes the formulation and numerical investigation of the thrust function required to minimize the time or fuel required for the terminal phase of the rendezvous of two spacecrafts. The particular rendezvous studied concerns a target spacecraft in a circular orbit and a chaser spacecraft with an initial separation distance and separation velocity in three dimensions. First, the time-optional rendezvous is investigated followed by the fuel-optional rendezvous. Then the time-optional rendezvous for given fuel and the fuel-optional rendezvous for given time are investigated.