Energy optimal multi-spacecraft relative reconfiguration of deep space formation flying

The energy optimal relative reconfiguration problem of a formation flying in deep space is formulated and an efficient method and a numerical algorithm for its solution are presented. The idea is Io introduce a set of way-points through which the spacecraft are required to pass combined with certain parameterization of the trajectories. The resulting energy optimal with collision avoidance constraints problem is formulated as a parameter optimization problem in terms of the way-points parameters. The proposed numerical algorithm exploits the mathematical structure of the resulting problem and is based on an active set method. Examples of this methodology´s application for scenarios with multiple spacecraft are given.