Many-revolution Earth-centred solar-sail trajectory optimisation using differential dynamic programming

Abstract

This thesis demonstrates the usability of differential dynamic programming (DDP) to obtain, for the first time, globally optimal Earth-centred solar-sail trajectories. To this end, DDP is combined with a global optimisation heuristic, monotonic basin hopping. The dynamical model is implemented as a two-body problem, augmented with an ideal solar-sail reflectance model and accounts for eclipses. The numerical performance of the optimisation algorithm is enhanced by integrating the sailcraft state in modified equinoctial elements and performing a Sundman transformation to change the independent variable from time to the true anomaly. The DDP algorithm is proven to be robust for trajectories extending up to 500 revolutions and, compared to known locally optimal steering laws, allows to obtain more or equally optimal solutions. The latter is demonstrated in this paper through a set of test cases that range from theoretical scenarios to realistic mission applications, including increasing the specific orbital energy of NASA’s upcoming ACS3 mission. Additionally, the algorithm's ability to cope with different optimisation settings, perturbing accelerations and constraints is demonstrated.