A shape-based design approach to interplanetary low-thrust transfer trajectory

Primary design is a challengeable task in research of interplanetary low-thrust transfer trajectory. In this paper, a robust design approach to interplanetary low-thrust transfer trajectory is presented by modifying a traditional inverse polynomial theory in the paper. Firstly, by analyzing the dynamics characteristics of the inverse polynomial-based trajectory, the feasible searching bound for key coefficients is derived. Secondly, through dealing with the acceleration constraint, a simple design model is established based the modified inverse polynomial theory. Finally, in order to obtain the optimal design parameters effectively and reliably, a differential evolution algorithm is used to optimize the design model. The proposed approach has a few design parameters and could avoid the disadvantage of missing the feasible trajectory. Furthermore, it could provide a reliable initial guess for accurate design. The validity of the algorithm has been validated by numerical simulation.