A Minimum Delta V Orbit Maintenance Strategy for Low-Altitude Missions Using Burn Parameter Optimization

Orbit maintenance is the series of burns performed during a mission to ensure the orbit satisfies mission constraints. Low-altitude missions often require non-trivial orbit maintenance Delta V due to sizable orbital perturbations and minimum altitude thresholds. A strategy is presented for minimizing this Delta V using impulsive burn parameter optimization. An initial estimate for the burn parameters is generated by considering a feasible solution to the orbit maintenance problem. An low-lunar orbit example demonstrates the Delta V savings from the feasible solution to the optimal solution. The strategy s extensibility to more complex missions is discussed, as well as the limitations of its use.