Space station orbit design using dynamic programming

A space station orbit design mission is characterized by a long-duration and multi-step decision process. First, the long-duration design process is divided into multiple planning periods, each of which consists of five basic flight segments. Second, each planning period is modeled as a multi-step decision process, and the orbital altitude strategies of different flight segments have interaction effects on each other. Third, a dynamic programming method is used to optimize the total propellant consumption of a planning period while considering interaction effects. The step cost of each decision segment is the propellant for orbital-decay maintenance or lifting altitude, and is calculated by approximate analytical equations and combining a shooting iteration method. The proposed approach is demonstrated for a typical orbit design problem of a space station. The results show that the proposed approach can effectively optimize the design of altitude strategies, and can save considerable propellant consumption for the space station than previous public studies.