Optimal Trajectory Design of Flying by a Target Spacecraft

To fulfill fast inspection of a target spacecraft, a novel observation method based on fly-by is presented. The model of relative motion between the target and the observer is established first, and the practical detection requirements are taken into account in terms of some dynamic constraints. Thereafter, the problem of fly-by trajectory design is formalized as a dynamic optimization problem with the performance index of scanning angle within finite time. Furthermore, with the purpose of reducing computational difficulty, we introduce an approximating algorithm to simplify the original problem to be a static optimization problem, which can be solved by the SQP algorithm. Finally, the numerical simulations are performed to verify the fly-by observation can increase the speed of target inspection comparing with the traditional fly-around observation.