Approach for optimal multi-rendezvous trajectory design for active debris removal

This paper proposes a method for designing a rendezvous trajectory for active debris removal using Lambert's problem. For the active debris removal mission, it is preferable to remove multiple target debris in sequence during a single mission with a low required ΔV. The trajectory design process for the removal mission consists of the following three steps: selection of the removal target debris from among many candidates; specification of the rendezvous order for the chosen debris; and design of the rendezvous transfer orbits. Since Lambert's problem has multiple solutions, the design process requires a large number of computations. By limiting the debris removal mission to low-Earth orbit, this paper proposes a procedure to specify a unique solution for Lambert's problem. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed procedure, this paper deals with a simple rendezvous for three debris as an example, and applies a genetic algorithm to find a solution having a reasonable ΔV with low calculation cost. Numerical results show that the proposed design procedure can find a reasonable solution for the multiple rendezvous problem.