Fuel-optimal low-thrust CAM with eclipse constraints

Abstract. This works presents an optimal control direct method to design fuel-optimal low-thrust Collision Avoidance Manoeuvres (CAMs), imposing return to nominal conditions and including eclipse constraints. The methodology exploits the Hermite-Simpon integration scheme to impose the dynamics and the Squared Mahalanobis Distance (SMD) to ensure a collision probability lower than a prescribed value. The choice of using a direct method to solve the Optimal Control Problem (OCP) is justified by the inclusion of orbital perturbations.