AAS 97-146

NECESSARY CONDITIONS FOR THE OPTIMALITY OF SYNERGETIC MANEUVERS

S-Y Park and I. M. Ross, Naval Postgraduate School

Abstract

A synergetic maneuver offers the possibility of substantial fuel savings and could be an important maneuver for a future spacecraft. We state the problem with all underlying assumptions and derive the necessary conditions for optimality of the synergetic maneuver in the presence of a heating-rate constraint. By using both the direct and indirect methods of adjoining the hamiltonian, we determine the types of possible switching structures and show which ones are possible and which ones do not satisfy the necessary conditions.