Robust Cislunar Low-Thrust Trajectory Optimization under Uncertainties via Sequential Covariance Steering

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2502.01907
• Publication Date: 2025-02-03
• Authors: Naoya Kumagai; Kenshiro Oguri
• Keywords: Trajectory Optimization

Spacecraft operations are influenced by uncertainties such as dynamics modeling, navigation, and maneuver execution errors. Although mission design has traditionally incorporated heuristic safety margins to mitigate the effect of uncertainties, particularly before/after crucial events, it is yet unclear whether this practice will scale in cislunar region, which features locally chaotic nonlinear involves frequent lunar flybys. This paper applies chance-constrained covariance steering sequential convex programming simultaneously an optimal trajectory correction policy that can probabilistically guarantee constraints under assumed physical/navigational error models. The results show proposed method effectively control state uncertainty a highly environment provide with better local stability properties than designed without considering uncertainties. framework allows faster computation lossless propagation compared existing methods, enabling rapid accurate comparison $\Delta V_{99}$ costs for different parameters. We demonstrate algorithm on several transfers Earth-Moon Circular Restricted Three Body Problem.