AAS 95-453

Power-Limited Transfers Between Two Coplanar Conics, Under Continuous Keplerian Thrust

N. Markopoulos, Aerospace Engineering Department, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Abstract

The Keplerian class of continuous thrust programs is used toward a complete analytical treatment of the problem of minimum-fuel, power-limited transfers of a spacecraft between two arbitrary coplanar conics. The power-limited near-optimality of the Keplerian class was argued upon in an earlier paper. Continuing the development, the guidance aspects of the problem are studied and the existence of exact open and closed-loop solutions for such transfers is demonstrated. Then, by comparing the costs for several examples of transfers with the corresponding optimal costs, the power-limited near-optimality of the Keplerian class is checked and verified.