Solution Space Research for Interplanetary Trajectory

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a solution space searching method to study the initial design of interplanetary low thrust gravity assist trajectory.Design/methodology/approachFor reducing the complexity and nonlinearity of the initial design problem, a sixth degree inverse polynomial shape based approach is brought. Then some improvements are provided for solving the parameters in the shape function and a quasi‐lambert solver is brought through the shape based method, the thrust profile can be generated under the given time of flight, boundary states including positions and velocities for low thrust phase. Combining gravity assist model, the problem is summarized and an improved pruning technique is used for searching the feasible solution space for low thrust gravity assist trajectory.FindingsUsing the solution space searching method, the feasible solution region would be generated under the given mission condition. The treatment about gravity assist demonstrates more accurate than previous method. Also another advantage is that the searching method can be used to design different types of mission trajectory, including flyby and rendezvous trajectories.Practical implicationsThe method can be used as an efficient approach to search the feasible region for the complex low thrust gravity assist trajectory, and it can provide appropriate initial guesses for the low thrust gravity assist trajectory in mission design phase.Originality/valueFeasible solution space would be obtained through the searching method. The quasi‐Lambert solver in the paper is found under the shape‐based method and relative improvement, and it shows its availability during the searching process. Through mission trajectory design, the effectiveness of the method is shown.