Optimal Science-time Reorientation Policy for the Comet Interceptor Flyby via Sequential Convex Programming
For spacecraft mission planners, this provides a computationally efficient method to maximize science observation time under realistic operational constraints and actuator faults.
This paper presents a sequential convex programming algorithm for optimal spacecraft reorientation during a high-speed flyby, maximizing the time a target remains in the field of view of scientific instruments. The method handles nonlinear dynamics, sun exclusion, actuator constraints, and faults, and was validated on the Comet Interceptor mission scenario, generating viable trajectories even with reaction wheel failures.
This paper introduces an algorithm to perform optimal reorientation of a spacecraft during a high speed flyby mission that maximizes the time a certain target is kept within the field of view of scientific instruments. The method directly handles the nonlinear dynamics of the spacecraft, sun exclusion constraint, torque and momentum limits on the reaction wheels as well as potential faults in these actuators. A sequential convex programming approach was used to reformulate non-convex pointing objectives and other constraints in terms of a series of novel convex cardinality minimization problems. These subproblems were then efficiently solved even on limited hardware resources using convex programming solvers implementing second-order conic constraints. The proposed method was applied to a scenario that involved maximizing the science time for the upcoming Comet Interceptor flyby mission developed by the European Space Agency. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the capability of the approach to generate viable trajectories even in the presence of reaction wheel failures or prior dust particle impacts.