Minimum-fuel control strategy for spacecraft formation reconfiguration via finite-time maneuvers

This paper addresses the minimum-fuel spacecraft formation reconfiguration maneuver in J2 perturbed nearcircular orbits. In this study, only the deputy is assumed to be maneuverable and capable of providing a piecewise constant control thrust. The optimal control problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming problem. To make the proposed strategy compliant with the requirements deriving from a realistic flight scenario, the collision avoidance and the maneuvering time constraints dictated by mission operations are included in the mathematical formulation. A linear dynamics model based on relative orbit elements parameterization and its associated closedform solution are used to impose the boundary conditions, avoiding the dynamics integration within the optimization process. Several examples are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.