Research on tether assisted interplanetary orbital capture

Tether control of the momentum-exchange tether assisted interplanetary orbital capture in deep space exploration was studied. Firstly, the dynamic model of a detector system in a hyperbolic flying orbit was established. Secondly, the consistent condition of orbital capture and the optimum tether cut-off point were derived to analyze the dynamic characteristics. Finally, considering the sub-detector's post-capture orbit maneuver requirements and limitation of the tether deployment/retrieval velocity, a new optimal control problem was proposed and numerically solved by the simulated annealing algorithm. Simulation results show that the tether orientation is appropriate at the cut-off point and will be beneficial for the following orbit maneuver, and the maximum tether deployment/retrieval velocity is about 30 m/s.