| Continuous low thrust propulsion has advantages for Earth orbit transfers, lunar transfers, and interplanetary missions. As an engineering problem, developing guidance methods to minimize fuel requirement or transfer time is important. A guidance method which considers the characteristics of the gravitational potential field around the Earth is proposed in order to minimize fuel requirement. In the first part of this thesis, the advantages of a continuous low thrust propulsion is presented relative to the impulse propulsion. In the second part, the effects of continuous low thrust propulsion on the orbital elements are discussed and examples are given. In the third part, the concept of the inclination change efficiency (ICE) is introduced and a guidance method derived from ICE is proposed with two additional guidance methods. Finally, simulations were run to compare the performance of these guidance methods. |
