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Closed-form Optimal Solutions for Propulsive-Differential Drag Control of Spacecraft Swarms
Abstract
This paper presents a novel optimal control approach for Distributed Space Systems (DSS) to minimize the total delta-v cost for large, time-constrained reconfigurations. Reconfiguration cost is decreased by blending differential drag and propulsive control within the same control window. By parameterizing the problem with Relative Orbital Elements (ROE) and leveraging reachable set theory, a maneuver planning methodology is derived to produce provably-optimal, full roto-translational control solutions in closed-form, such that they can be implemented on hardware-limited spacecraft.
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BibTeX
@misc{hunter2026closedform,
title = {{Closed-form Optimal Solutions for Propulsive-Differential Drag Control of Spacecraft Swarms}},
author = {Matthew Hunter and Simone D'Amico},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.31970},
eprint = {2610.31970},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31970},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Closed-form Optimal Solutions for Propulsive-Differential Drag Control of Spacecraft Swarms
AU - Matthew Hunter
AU - Simone D'Amico
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.31970
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31970
AB - This paper presents a novel optimal control approach for Distributed Space Systems (DSS) to minimize the total delta-v cost for large, time-constrained reconfigurations. Reconfiguration cost is decreased by blending differential drag and propulsive control within the same control window. By parameterizing the problem with Relative Orbital Elements (ROE) and leveraging reachable set theory, a maneuver planning methodology is derived to produce provably-optimal, full roto-translational control solutions in closed-form, such that they can be implemented on hardware-limited spacecraft.
ER -