On the Solution of Interplanetary Trajectory Design Problems by Global Optimisation Methods

A study of global optimisation methods in the eld of interplanetary trajectory has been performed. From the No Free Lunch Theorem, it is impossible that an algorithm outperforms all others in all the possible applications, therefore the aim of this work was two fold: to identify a suitable global op- timisation algorithm that outperforms all others in a particular transfer typology; to identify a suit- able global optimisation algorithm family that outperforms all others in all mission analysis transfer problems. At rst a characterisation of the different transfer families, depending on propulsion system and number of planetary bodies involved was conducted. The model characterisation was performed within the search space to describe the morphological features of the objective function, and within the objective function to identify continuity and convexity. Once the optimisation prob- lem has been fully dened, an exhaustive and systematic analysis of the resulting objective function structure has been performed in order to identify typical features which would mostly affect the global search.