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Optimal Rendezvous Sequence for LEO Debris Capture



Author(s)

Ciro Borriello and Lorenzo Casalino

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DOI:10.17265/2332-8258/2015.01.004

The primary purpose of this study is to exploit the effect of Earth’s non-sphericity perturbation, particularly due to the J2 term, in order to optimize the capture sequence of potential orbital debris, that is the cumulative ΔV associated to the transfers between one object and the others. As results of several researches and model predictions, many international agencies agree that the growing population of objects and debris in LEO (low earth orbits), will follow a diverging trend in the future. This, in turn, would constitute a serious threat to circum-terrestrial space safety and sustainability. In LEO, the J2 disturbance is prevailing over the others, and it acts by affecting the longitude of the ascending node (Ω), the argument of perigee (ω) and, accordingly, the true anomaly (ν). Therefore, the goal of optimizing the ΔV is achieved by taking advantage of the rate of variation of Ω and ω, thereby compensating for the ΔΩ and Δω, present between the orbital transfer vehicle (chaser) and the debris to be captured (target). Obviously, the perturbation will lead to favourable variations of the orbital parameters only for some combinations of Ω and ω. Yet the presence of a debris population with random distribution of Ω and ω, makes this application particularly suited to the problem. The single maneuver has been modelled with a 4-impulse time fixed rendezvous and the optimization problem has been addressed by implementing a hybrid evolutionary algorithm, which adopts, in parallel, three different strategies, namely, genetic algorithm, differential evolution and particle swarm optimization.

Trajectory optimization, hybrid evolutionary algorithms, debris removal, multi-target rendezvous, J2 perturbation assist.