Low thrust orbit-raising using non-singular orbital elements and proximity quotient approach

Abstract

Recent years have shown a growing interest in the space industry in all-electric satellites. Mission designers analyzing the optimal deployment options for all electric satellites need to consider three important metrics: transfer time, fuel expenditure and radiation damage. This paper proposes a proximity quotient type approach based guidance-scheme using modified equinoctial elements to determine a low-thrust trajectory that minimizes other objectives during electric orbit-raising. The use of the equinoctial elements help in avoidance of singularity of the orbital elements at GEO, thereby enabling the final orbit to be precisely GEO at the end of the transfer. We present numerical examples to illustrate our methodology when the objective function to be minimized is different from time.