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Updated: Aug 14, 2025

Operation of the Collaborative Composite Manufacturing CCM System
Published on: October 1, 2019
A Homotopic Direct Collocation Approach for Operational-Compliant Trajectory Design
Alessandra Mannocchi1, Carmine Giordano1, Francesco Topputo1
1Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Abstract:
Stand-alone deep-space CubeSats are the future of the space sector. For limited budget reasons, these spacecraft need to follow operational-compliant (OC) trajectories: transfers with thrusting and coasting periods imposed at pre-defined time instants. Traditional trajectory optimisation algorithms exhibit convergence problems when handling discontinuous constraints. In this work, a homotopic direct collocation approach is presented. It employs a continuation algorithm that maps the classical bang-bang trajectory of a fuel-optimal low-thrust problem into an OC solution. M-ARGO CubeSat mission is considered as case study for validation, including a realistic thruster model with variable specific impulse and maximum thrust. The trajectories computed with the developed algorithm are compared with non-operational-compliant solutions. Our algorithm produces transfers similar to the optimal solutions with no operational constraint, both in terms of thrusting profile and propellant mass.
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