Multitrajectory Combination for Multiple Ground Target Observation by Maneuvering On-Orbit Satellites

Compared with launching new satellites, it is an economic scheme to use on-orbit satellites to maneuver to meet users' particular needs for Earth observation. This article studies the mission design method of on-orbit satellite maneuver for observing large-scale ground targets within a given duration. This article divides the original large-scale sequence optimization problem into two small-scale subproblems that are easy to optimize: short-sequence trajectory generation and multitrajectory combination optimization. The multitrajectory combination framework, including database generation, multitrajectory combination selection, trajectory patching, and trajectory keeping, is adopted to optimize the observation sequence and design the satellite's trajectory. In two specific scenarios, the fuel-optimal scenario and accurate revisit observation scenario, the proposed framework shows competitive optimization performance compared with the existing tree search algorithms. In addition, this article provides a known optimal result for the 11th China Trajectory Optimization Competition problem.