Developing a tool for the trajectory planning of cubesat missions

Developing a modern low thrust trajectory planning tool for applications to picosatellites poses a number of unique challenges. This work discusses the development of a propellant-minimum trajectory planning tool, that combines a higher order integrator, algebraic differentiation techniques, adaptive step size control, a non-linear programming problem solver, and analysis of cumulative density functions of the control profile to generate a robust, extendable solution framework. Discussions of the lessons learned in merging these techniques, as well as a few demonstrated case studies will be included. The work will be shown to be extendable in the future towards cooperative formation flying.