Optimal Path Planning for Spacecraft Formation Flying: Planning Architecture and Operations

A number of future space missions are being planned to exploit the unique dynamic environment of the Sun-Earth collinear libration points, in particular the L2 point. Of these missions, the use of formation flying of distributed space systems is receiving much attention especially for space-based interferometry. Architectures for the autonomous planning of optimal spacecraft trajectories are presented incorporating five defined optimisation modules that can generate collision-free, fuel-optimal trajectories about L2 for interferometry manoeuvres. The first of these modules, the operations planner, is introduced and a tool developed (for use onboard the spacecraft) that is able to optimally schedule mission observations significantly better than a simple benchmark.