Optimal continuous maneuvers for satellite formation reconfiguration in J2-perturbed orbits

This paper focuses on the fuel-minimum in-plane spacecraft reconfiguration ma-neuver in 2 perturbed near-circular orbits. The reconfiguration problem is posed as a nonlinear optimal control problem and it is solved by two techniques, namely the Mixed-integer Linear Programming and the Particle Swarm Optimization. The control is assumed to be a piecewise constant function and a linear dynamics model based on relative orbit element parameterization is used to derive the fuel-optimal solution. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of both proposed methods, pointing out the performance in terms of computing time and accuracy.