Deterministic and stochastic exploration of long asteroid fly-by sequences exploiting tree-graph and optimal substructure properties

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dc.contributor.authorSanchez, Joan-Pau
dc.contributor.authorBellome, Andrea
dc.contributor.authorCarrillo, Maria
dc.contributor.authorDel Ser, J.
dc.date.accessioned2022-10-19T15:44:04Z
dc.date.available2022-10-19T15:44:04Z
dc.date.issued2022-09-22
dc.description.abstractIn the past, space trajectory design was limited to the optimal design of transfers to single destinations. However, a somewhat more daring approach is today making the space community to consider missions that visit, with one single spacecraft, a multitude of celestial objects; such as asteroid tour mission proposals CASTAway or MANTIS, which both proposed to visit 10 or more asteroids in a quick succession of asteroid fly-bys. The design of these so-called asteroid tours is complicated by the fact that the sequence of asteroids is not known a priori, but is the objective of the optimisation itself. This leads to a complex mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) problem, on which the decision variables assume both continuous and discrete values. Beyond the obvious complexity of such problem formulation, preliminary mission design requires not only to locate the global optimum solution but, also, to map the ensemble of solutions that leads to feasible transfers. This paper analyses the complexity of such search space, which can be efficiently modelled as a tree-graph of interconnected Lambert arc solutions between two consecutive asteroids. This allows to exploit the optimal substructure of the problem and enables complete tree traverse explorations for limited asteroid catalogues. Nevertheless, the search space quickly grows in complexity for larger catalogues, featuring a labyrinthine multi-modal structure and extreme non-linearities. This underlying complexity ultimately renders common stochastic heuristics, such as Ant Colony Optimization, rather inefficient. Mostly, due to the fact that the metaheuristic processes are not able to gather any real understanding, or knowledge, such that it can efficiently guide the search. Instead, an astrodynamics-lead heuristic based on the distance between spacecraft and asteroid at the asteroid’s MOID-point crossing epoch, enables an efficient pruning of the asteroid catalogue. Then, deterministic processes based on dynamic programming and beam search can be efficiently applied, providing solutions to both the global optimum and the constraint satisfaction problems.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationSanchez JP, Bellome A, Carrillo M, Del Ser J. (2022) Deterministic and stochastic exploration of long asteroid fly-by sequences exploiting tree-graph and optimal substructure properties. In: 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC-22), 18-22 September 2022, Paris, Franceen_UK
dc.identifier.urihttps://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/18579
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherInternational Astronautical Federation (IAF)en_UK
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjectMixed-integer Trajectory Designen_UK
dc.subjectAsteroid Toursen_UK
dc.subjectOptimizationen_UK
dc.subjectConstraint Satisfactionen_UK
dc.titleDeterministic and stochastic exploration of long asteroid fly-by sequences exploiting tree-graph and optimal substructure propertiesen_UK
dc.typeConference paperen_UK

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