Low-Thrust Orbital Transfer with Solar-Electric Propulsion

orbital transfer using solar-electric propulsion

This interactive MATLAB script (sep_ltot.m) can be used to determine the characteristics of continuous, low-thrust orbital transfer between two nonplanar circular orbits using solar-electric propulsion (SEP). The numerical method used in this script is described in Chapter 14 of the book Orbital Mechanics by V. Chobotov and the technical paper “The Reformulation of Edelbaum's Low-thrust Transfer Problem Using Optimal Control Theory” by Jean. A. Kechichian, AIAA-92-4576-CP. The original Edelbaum algorithm is described in “Propulsion Requirements for Controllable Satellites”, ARS Journal, August 1961, pp. 1079-1089.