Optimal Spacecraft Trajectories

Optimal Finite-Thrust Spacecraft Trajectories Using Collocation and Nonlinear Programming Background Recently there has been great interest by NASA and the ESA in developing satellite constellations that will serve to act as interferometers for use in gravity wave detection. These satellite constellations would be composed of six satellites arranged in varying orbits such that they form an equilateral triangle with each triangle vertex containing two satellites at close proximity. Each vertex would send two laser signals …

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