Automated Multiple Gravity-Assist Sequence Optimisation: An intelligent parallel-computing methodology

While the space industry expands rapidly and space exploration becomes ever more relevant, this thesis aims to automate the design of Multiple Gravity-Assist (MGA) transfers using low-thrust propulsion. In particular, during the preliminary design phase of space missions, the combinatorial complexity of MGA sequencing is large and current...

Differential dynamic programming applied to interplanetary solar-sail trajectory optimization

Recent studies have shown the feasibility of differential dynamic programming (DDP) in optimizing Earth-centered solar-sail trajectories. In order to further demonstrate the ability of DDP in the optimization of solar-sail trajectories, this work investigates the performance of DDP for optimizing interplanetary solar-sail trajectories. The...

Online Surrogate Models for the Constrained Optimization of Interplanetary Low-Thrust Trajectories

The optimization of interplanetary, low-­thrust trajectories is a computationally expensive aspect of preliminary mission design. To reduce the computational burden associated with it, surrogate models can be used as cheap approximations of the original fitness function. Training the surrogate models in a fully online manner can be done to...

Application of the Spherical Shaping Method to a Low-Thrust Multiple Asteroid Rendezvous Mission: Implementation, limitations and solutions

Since the development of the exponential sinusoid for low-thrust trajectory design by Petropoulos and Longuski [2004], more shape-based methods have emerged that ease up the work of a mission analyst. These methods are the ideal tool to generate a quick and almost complete overview of a large search space and are useful for producing first...