Mission Planning of Long Distance Guidance for Space Rendezvous

Space rendezvous is the foundation of space operation and application. In this paper, mission planning of long distance guidance stage for space rendezvous is discussed. Two-impulse rendezvous is solved by analyzing Gauss problem. Based on Battin-Vaughan algorithm, ergodic calculation is performed for different combination of initial position and transfer time. To carry out the mission planning for rendezvous, three-dimensional surface specified by transfer time, initial true anomaly and characteristic velocity is discussed as well as characteristic velocity isograms. Simulations are conducted for a special mission. Linear regression is applied to obtain approximate analytic formula of fuel-optimal rendezvous. Results indicate that the strategy introduced in the paper is universal and efficient and, can provide powerful tools for mission planning.