Low-Thrust Transfer Between Circular Orbits Using Natural Precession

Abstract

The minimum-fuel low-thrust transfer between circular orbits is formulated using the Edelbaum's averaged dynamics with the addition of the nodal precession due to the first zonal term. The extremal analysis shows that an optimal transfer is composed of three sequences in the regular case. The optimal control problem is solved by a shooting method with a costate guess derived from an approximate solution.