Receding Horizon Control for Spacecraft with Low-Thrust Propulsion

In this paper, we consider the problem of trajectory control of a spacecraft enabled with solar electric propulsion in the presence of uncertainties. We propose a receding horizon scheme in which the underlying optimal control problem (non-linear, multi-phase) is solved in a fast and robust manner through the use of a novel dynamic model and an unconstrained optimization problem formulation for generating automated initial guesses. The generated guess trajectory is utilized to rapidly solve a constrained parameter optimization problem and yield the optimal spacecraft trajectory over the planning horizon. We demonstrate the performance of the algorithm through numerical simulations for low-thrust maneuver about celestial bodies with strong and weak gravitational fields. The simulations incorporate uncertainties due to unmodeled dynamics, specifically the oblateness of the celestial body and the presence of third body perturbation.