Flight Implementation of Pseudospectral Optimal Control for the TRACE Space Telescope

This paper presents the application of pseudospectral optimal control techniques for solving time-optimal reorientation maneuvers and their implementation on the NASA space telescope TRACE. A time-optimal reorientation maneuver is designed by first deriving a constrained optimal control problem formulation from models of the TRACE spacecraft dynamics and reaction wheel-based attitude control system. A detailed flight simulation model of the TRACE spacecraft is constructed to assist in this process. The resulting optimal control problem is then solved using fast spectral algorithms. Both simulation results and telemetry data obtained from a flight experiment show that the designed timeoptimal maneuver adheres to the specified constraints, including the nonlinear reaction wheel torque-momentum envelope and other limitations imposed by on board sensors. Moreover, the time-optimal maneuver was implemented on orbit without the need to modify the existing spacecraft attitude control system, making the approach suitable for application to other spacecraft already on orbit.

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