Spacecraft's transfer orbit design based on the virtual central gravity field method

The space maneuver technology is the basis of space mission operation. In this paper, a novel method named virtual central gravitational field method for continuous thrust maneuver trajectory design for the spacecraft is proposed, which can decrease the number of trajectories' parameters. Because there is no assumption in this approach, it can be used in general case. This approach applies in orbit transfer in both 2-D and 3-D spaces, and the results show that in the same condition, the required thrust acceleration and energy cost are smaller than that of shape-based methods.