Fuel-Optimal Spacecraft Rendezvous Mission Planning Method Considering Orbital Perturbation

A fuel-optimal spacecraft rendezvous mission planning method considering orbital perturbation is proposed to address the fuel consumption problem of spacecraft completing rendezvous missions. Firstly, considering the constraints of total mission time and desired position, a model of orbital perturbation spacecraft considering non-spherical and atmospheric drag is constructed, and the adaptation function of fuel consumption for single-loop Lambert transfer considering orbital perturbation is designed. Based on this fitness function, an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm is designed to determine the first applied impulse time, the second applied impulse time, and the rendezvous time in the rendezvous mission planning, and then solve the two applied impulse sizes with the minimum fuel consumption to complete the spacecraft rendezvous mission. Finally, simulation experiments with a set of spacecraft rendezvous missions are conducted to verify the practicality and effectiveness of the method.