MULTI-TIERED APPROACH TO CONSTELLATION MANEUVER OPTIMIZATION FOR LOW-THRUST STATION-KEEPING

This paper presents a multi-tiered approach to constellation-wide optimization of low-thrust station-keeping maneuvers. Starting from the general problem of constellation maneuver optimization, a tractable solution is presented for station-keeping. The approach utilizes a gradient-descent algorithm to efficiently drive each satellite toward its nominal orbit, encapsulating this trajectory optimization in an outer-loop genetic algorithm to optimize within discrete and non-differentiable constellation-level constraints. The output trajectories are validated and refined in a high-fidelity environment using NASA's General Mission Analysis Tool. A concrete example with operational constraints is presented, and limits of the computation-driven assumptions in the tractable solution are assessed.