New Approach to Mission Design Based on the Fundamental Equations of Motion

The complexity of space missions has been steadily increasing as new missions are expected to be designed to fly under more and more stringent constraints. This paper shows the use of a new, simple methodology that is useful for complex mission design. It deals with determining the “exact” control force needed to cause a spacecraft to move at a given inclination in a circular orbit around an oblate rotating body whose gravitational field is nonuniform. The methodology uses the explicit Udwadia–Kalaba equations of motions showing the simplicity, accuracy, and power of the approach, and the ease with which the control forces can be explicitly obtained.