Astrodynamics Vol. 2, No. 1, 2537, 2018 https://doi.org/10.

1007/s42064-017-0009-2

Optimization of observing sequence based on nominal trajectories of

symmetric observing configuration

Hongwei Yang , Gao Tang , and Fanghua Jiang (B)

1 1,2 1

1. School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

2. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This paper presents the crucial method for obtaining our teams results in the 8th Global branch and bound
Trajectory Optimization Competition (GTOC8). Because the positions and velocities of optimization
spacecraft cannot be completely determined by one observation on one radio source, the symmetric observing
branch and bound method for sequence optimization of multi-asteroid exploration cannot configuration
be directly applied here. To overcome this difficulty, an optimization method for searching GTOC
the observing sequence based on nominal low-thrust trajectories of the symmetric observing low thrust
configuration is proposed. With the symmetric observing configuration, the normal vector of
the triangle plane formed by the three spacecraft rotates in the ecliptic plane periodically and
approximately points to the radio sources which are close to the ecliptic plane. All possible
observing opportunities are selected and ranked according to the nominal trajectories
designed by the symmetric observing configuration. First, the branch and bound method is Research Article
employed to find the optimal sequence of the radio source with thrice observations. Second, Received: 16 December 2016
this method is also used to find the optimal sequence of the left radio sources. The nominal Accepted: 20 June 2017
trajectories are then corrected for accurate observations. The performance index of our 2017 Tsinghua University
result is 128,286,317.0 km which ranks the second place in GTOC8. Press

a symmetric observing configuration for the sequence

1 Introduction
In the 8th Global Trajectory Optimization Competition
(GTOC8), an innovative problem, which is related to
interplanetary trajectory design, was released by the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The theme for this new
problem is high-resolution mapping of radio sources
in the universe using space-based very-long-baseline
interferometry (VLBI) [1]. During the competition,
we proposed an effective design method for this new
problem. Using this method, all computations were
finished efficiently on our personal computers. The
authors team, Tsinghua University, ranks the second
place in GTOC8 [1]. Our team achieved that all observed
radio sources are near the ecliptic plane. These observed
radio sources are preferable targets according to the
performance index of GTOC8. The goal of this paper is
to introduce the optimization method of the observing
sequence as well as the nominal trajectories of
optimization.
The reason that we used the symmetric observing
configuration and proposed the observing sequence
optimization based on nominal trajectories is because
of the particularity and complexity of GTOC8
compared with the previous GTOCs. For the most
of the previous GTOCs, the problems concern
low-thrust trajectory optimization for asteroid
missions, such as asteroid defense, asteroid sample
return, multiple asteroid rendezvous, and flyby,
etc. (http://sophia.estec.esa.int/gtoc portal/). Extensive
papers have been published in the fields of low-
thrust interplanetary trajectory optimization. The
optimization methods can be classified into two
categories: indirect methods [28] and direct methods
[9]. Gao and Kluever [10] also proposed a hybrid
method which combines these two kinds of methods.
As for improving the solution efficiency, there are two

B jiangfh@tsinghua.edu.cn
26
levels of techniques The first level is about global
searching. One of the most popular approaches is
to approximate low-thrust trajectories by impulse
trajectories and then search the optimal asteroid
sequence through the branch and bound method [5].
Because impulse trajectories are not equivalent to
low-thrust trajectories, fast methods for evaluating
low-thrust trajectories are presented as well [6, 7].
Additionally, there are studies about determining
optimal gravity assist sequences [8,11]. The second level
is about low-thrust trajectory optimization. Amount
of powerful techniques have been proposed, such as
smoothing techniques [2, 4], parallel computation [3],
a shape-based trajectory technique [9], etc. However,
two new features appear in the problem of GTOC8
compared with the previous GTOCs, leading the
problem to be more complex. Three spacecraft need
to cooperate for observations. More importantly, the
directions of the radio sources cannot be used to
determine the position and/or velocity of any of the
spacecraft. Although the problem of GTOC7 is also
about a multiple spacecraft mission [12], searching of
target sequences of each spacecraft can still be regarded
independently. Besides, the position and velocity of each
spacecraft are equal to that of the target asteroid at each
rendezvous time.
A symmetric observing configuration is found by the
authors during GTOC8. With this configuration, the
observing direction rotates periodically in the ecliptic
plane, which is preferable for repetitive observations of
the radios close to the ecliptic plane. This configuration
is also taken as an efficient tool by some other
teams such as the team of State Key Laboratory
of Astronautic Dynamics and the team of Chinese
Academy of Sciences [13, 14]. These teams [13, 14] both
got excellent results. One of main differences between
our method and their method is that the optimization
of the observing sequence. In this paper, we take the
idea of using the branch and bound method to search
the optimal observing sequence. Different from the
application of the branch and bound method in sequence
searching of the multiple asteroid rendezvous mission
[5], the searching in the current paper is based on the
pre-designed nominal trajectories so that no lambert
problems need to be solved.
Our method for GTOC8 has been briefly introduced
in our previous conference paper [15]. Compared with
that paper [15], this paper makes two contributions.
H. Yang, G. Tang, F. Jiang
First, the symmetric observing configuration and its
nominal trajectories are further analyzed. Second, the
algorithms for optimization of the observing sequence
are given in detail.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In
Section 2, the problem of GTOC8 is briefly introduced.
Section 3 presents and analyzes the symmetric observing
configuration. In Section 4, the designed nominal
trajectories of the symmetric observing configuration is
introduced and analyzed. Section 5 presents the branch
and bound method for searching the optimal observing
sequence. Section 6 concludes the paper.
2 Background
In this section, the problem of GTOC8 [1] is briefly
introduced. Three low-thrust propelled spacecraft are
launched to formulate a series of triangles to observe
radio sources. The equation of motion of each spacecraft
is
r Tmax u
r + 3 = (1)
r m
where r is the position vector of the spacecraft in the
Earth Mean Ecliptic and Equinox of J2000 frame,
is the gravitational constant of the Earth, Tmax is the
maximal thrust magnitude, and m is the mass of the
spacecraft. The maximum magnitude of the thrust is
0.1 N. The control variable consists of the unit vector of
thrust direction and the engine thrust ratio u [0, 1].
The mass variation is computed by
Tmax u
m = (2)
Isp g0
where Isp is the specific impulse, and g0 is the standard
acceleration of gravity at the sea level.
The three spacecraft are launched from a 400-km
altitude circular orbit around the Earth. The whole
mission is no more than 3 years.
The range of the spacecraft relative to the Earth must
obey the following condition:
6578.14 km 6 r 6 1,000,000.0 km (3)
An observation is recorded when the normal direction
of the observing triangle is aligned with the direction
of a radio source. The direction error must be less
than 0.1 deg. The time intervals between two adjacent
observations must be no less than 15 days.
The performance index J to be maximized is [1]:
X
P h 0.2 + cos2


J= (4)
Optimization of observing sequence based on nominal trajectories of symmetric observing configuration 27

where P is the weighting factor, h is the smallest of the
three altitudes of the observing triangle, and is the
declination of the observed radio sources. An altitude
of a triangle is the perpendicular distance from a vertex
to the opposite side (or its extension) [1]. The observing
altitude h must be larger than 10,000 km for effective
observations. The weighting factor P takes on the values
of 1, 3, 6, and 0 for repeat observations according to the
rules. The most attractive case is to observe the same
radio source for three times and the three observing
altitudes satisfy h2 /h1 > 3 and h3 /h2 > 3.
is shown in Fig. 2. As for this configuration, the following
four conditions are satisfied: (1) two of the three
spacecraft, denoted as S1 and S2 , orbit symmetrically
about the ecliptic plane; (2) the other one of the three
spacecraft, denoted as S3 , stays in the ecliptic plane;
(3) the orbits are all circular with the same radius; (4)
the arguments of latitude of S1 and S2 are the same (the
ascending nodes are opposite) while the difference in the

3 Analysis of the symmetric observing

configuration
3.1 Reason of using the symmetric
observing configuration
According to Eq. (4), radio sources near the ecliptic
plane are preferable because a low declination greatly
contributes to the performance index. Therefore, an
observing configuration with its observing direction
rotating in the ecliptic plane is considered in the (a) All given radio sources
preliminary design. In GTOC8, 420 radio sources are
given by the organizer. Because the time interval
between two adjacent observations should be no less
than 15 days, no more than 16 different radio sources,
if each one is observed thrice, can be observed in two
years. Actually, 37 radio sources, whose declinations
are from 3 to 3 deg, can be selected from all 420 given
radio sources, as shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, the radio
sources near the ecliptic plane are enough for designing
a competitive observing mission. Because the number
of radio sources is reduced to 37, the complexity of
computations is greatly reduced.
Additionally, it contributes greatly to the
(b) The selected radio sources
performance index if the weighting factor P takes
Fig. 1 Selection of the radio sources.
the maximum value. But, it requires that a radio source
is observed thrice. In order to repeatedly observe many
radio sources, it is beneficial to rotate the observing
direction periodically.
Therefore, we propose to use the symmetric observing
configuration which enables the observing direction
rotating periodically in the ecliptic plane. The geometry
of the desired configuration and its properties will be
given below.

3.2 Geometry of the symmetric observing

configuration
The geometry of the symmetric observing configuration Fig. 2 Geometry of the symmetric observing configurations.
28 H. Yang, G. Tang, F. Jiang

arguments of latitude of S1 and S3 is . then = + 2. The history of with for different

Denote the inclination and the argument of latitude
of S1 as i and , respectively. Then, the position vectors
of the three spacecraft are derived as follows:
r1 = r[ cos sin cos i sin sin i ] (5)
r2 = r[ cos sin cos i sin sin i ] (6)
r3 = r[ cos sin 0 ] (7)
The normal direction of the observing triangle is
(r1 r2 ) (r1 r3 )
n= (8)
k(r1 r2 ) (r1 r3 )k
where
(r1 r2 ) (r1 r3 ) =
r2 [ 2sin2 sini(cosi+1) 4sinsinicos 0 ] (9)
According to Eqs. (8) and (9), the normal direction
of the observing triangle keeps parallel to the ecliptic
plane, which is also shown in Fig. 2.
Moreover, the observing altitude is low if S1 and S2
are close to the ecliptic plane but it becomes higher
if S1 and S2 move away from the ecliptic plane. To
obtain the maximum h, the following conditions must
be satisfied: (1) the inclination of S1 is 60 deg; (2) the
three spacecraft consist of an equilateral triangle; (3)
the radius of each spacecrafts orbit is 1106 km. Once
these conditions are satisfied, h is equal to 1.5106 km.
The configuration with i = 60 deg is chosen as the final
configuration in our strategy.
3.3 Properties of the symmetric observing
configuration
Because n is always parallel to the ecliptic plane, the
first property of the symmetric observing configuration
is that the observing direction can be regarded as
staying in the ecliptic plane.
The second property is about the periodicity of the
observing direction. According to Eqs. (8) and (9), the
right ascension of the observing direction is
1 = arctan 2 4sinsinicos, 2sin2 sini(cosi+1)


i is shown in Fig. 3. According to this figure, has
periodicity for each inclination. It also can be found
that the curve of to becomes straight when the
inclination decreases. Nevertheless, the effect of i on
is small according to the shapes of the curves.
4 Nominal trajectories of the symmetric
observing configuration
In this paper, we only concern the low-thrust
trajectories after the Moon gravity assists because there
is no effective observation in our design result before
gravity assists. Before the Moon gravity assists, we
use the analytical control law which maximizes the
variation of the apogee to design the multiple-revolution
trajectories. In this way, the orbits of spacecraft
can be raised to the Moon rapidly. At the end stage,
the trajectory optimization is conducted to obtain the
desired final state before the Moon gravity assists. More
details for designing the low-thrust trajectory before
the Moon gravity assists can be found in Ref. [15].
Additionally, we use the homotopy method [4] with
the logarithmic homotopy [2] for low-thrust trajectory
optimization. And the equation of motion is described
by the equinoctial elements [10]. More details on the
low-thrust trajectory optimization can also be found in
Ref. [15].
The state variables of the three spacecraft are
shown in Table 1. After the Moon gravity assists,
the orbits of all spacecraft are ellipses with high
eccentricities. Besides, the orbital planes of S1 and

(10)
or
2 = arctan 2 4sinsinicos, 2sin2 sini(cosi+1)

(11)
Because the difference between 1 and 2 keeps
, only the variation of 1 is analyzed herein. Both
directions will be considered in searching the optimal
sequence. Besides, the considered range for is from 0 Fig. 3 Periodicity of the observing direction with different
to 2 in the rest of this paper. If is less than zero, inclinations.
Optimization of observing sequence based on nominal trajectories of symmetric observing configuration 29

Table 1 State variables of spacecraft immediately after the Moon gravity assists

Spacecraft Epoch (MJD) x (km) y (km) z (km) vx (km) vy (km) vz (km) Mass (kg)
1 59077.839 52941.717 372202.105 0 0.672 0.900 0.028 1994.145
2 59077.839 52941.717 372202.105 0 0.672 0.900 0.028 1995.612
3 59090.705 54833.246 385500.332 0 0.876 0.653 0 1994.060

S2 are very close to the ecliptic plane. To achieve
the final observing configuration as well as adjust the
size of the configuration for obtaining desired observing
altitudes, both circularization and adjustments of
orbital inclination are essential.
The designed nominal trajectories in our methods
belong to four stages. In the first stage, the orbits of
the three spacecraft are circularized and adjusted to
construct the symmetric observing configuration. The
target radius is set to 0.99106 km. In the second stage,
the inclinations of S1 and S2 are changed to 13 deg and
the time spent on this stage is 2 orbital periods. In order
to achieve observations with high performance, a radio
source needs to be observed three times and the three
observing altitudes should satisfy hmax /hmid > 3 and
hmid /hmin > 3 [1]. The h for each i takes its maximum
when = . The variation of h with respect to i when
= is shown in Fig. 4. The inclination of 13 deg is
chosen to make the maximum observing height at the
last coast stage as about 1/3 of the largest observing
height. The length of this period is approximate to
those of the first stage and the last coast stage. The
reason that this ratio is not exactly 1/3 is to make the
period of the third stage as integral multiples of the half
orbital period. In the third stage, the inclinations of S1
and S2 are changed to 60 deg. In the fourth stage, all
spacecraft coast until the mission ends.
The nominal trajectories in each stage are presented
and analyzed below.
Nominal trajectories in stage 1
The designed nominal trajectories for stage 1 are
shown in Fig. 5. According to the figure, the semimajor
axis of each spacecrafts orbit increases and all orbits
are circularized during this stage.
The history of the observing altitude and direction
for stage 1 are shown in Fig. 6. The reason that there
are two color lines in Fig. 6(b) is because has two
solutions. This explanation also holds for the figures
in other stages. According to the figure, the observing
altitude and direction are not periodic in this stage.
This is because the symmetric observing configuration
has not been constructed before this stage.
Nominal trajectories in stage 2
The designed nominal trajectories for stage 2 are
shown in Fig. 7. According to the figure, both the
inclinations of S1 and S2 change during this stage and
then stay at the desired values.
The history of the observing altitude and direction for
stage 2 are shown in Fig. 8. The first wave in Fig. 8(a)
is not the same as other three waves because the
inclination adjustment is conducted. After that, both
the observing altitude and direction becomes periodic.
And the range of the observing direction is from 0 to
2.

Fig. 5 Nominal trajectories in stage 1.

Fig. 4 Variation of h with respect to i when = .
30 H. Yang, G. Tang, F. Jiang

(a) (a)

(b) (b)
Fig. 6 History of the observing altitude and direction in stage 1. Fig. 8 History of the observing altitude and direction in stage 2.

Fig. 7 Nominal trajectories in stage 2. Fig. 9 Nominal trajectories in stage 3.

Nominal trajectories in stage 3
The designed nominal trajectories for stage 3 are
shown in Fig. 9. According to the figure, both the
inclinations of S1 and S2 change continuously during this
stage.
The history of the observing altitude and direction
for stage 3 are shown in Fig. 10. According to the
figure, the peaks of the wave increases. This is because of
the inclination adjustment. But, the observing direction
is almost periodic. And the range of the observing
Optimization of observing sequence based on nominal trajectories of symmetric observing configuration 31

The history of the observing altitude and direction for

stage 4 are shown in Fig. 12. According to the figure,
both the observing altitude and direction are periodic.
And the range of the observing direction is from 0 to
2. Compared Fig. 12 with Fig. 8, we see that the
shapes of the waves of the observing altitude are similar
and the histories of the observing direction are similar
as well. Because of this phenomenon, we predict that
if an observing sequence is found in stage 4 then the
same observing sequence can be found in stage 2 with
the same order it appears. Therefore, we search the
observing sequence in stage 2 the same as that in stage
(a)
4. It greatly reduces the computation effort when the
branch bound method is applied.

5 Optimization of the observing

sequence
In the previous section, we present the nominal

(b)
Fig. 10 History of the observing altitude and direction in stage 3.

direction is from 0 to 2.
Nominal trajectories in stage 4
The designed nominal trajectories for stage 4 are
shown in Fig. 11. According to the figure, all spacecraft
keep coasting during this stage. (a)

(b)
Fig. 11 Nominal trajectories in stage 4. Fig. 12 History of the observing altitude and direction in stage 4.
32
trajectories. With these nominal trajectories, we
propose an algorithm to select all possible observing
opportunities. After that, a global optimization method,
the branch bound method, is employed for optimization
of the observing sequence.
5.1 Selecting possible observing
opportunities
The following algorithm is used for selecting possible
observing opportunities:
Step 1 Initialize the discrete time points {t1 ,. . . ,
tN } between ts and tf with the time interval of one day.
Step 2 Compute h and at the discrete time
points.
Step 3 Find all observing possibilities with the
selected radio sources between tk and tk+1 (k = 1,. . . ,
N 1) based on . Use linear interpolations to obtain
observing time points and h at these time points.
Step 4 Sort all possible observations according to
observing time.
The time interval for the discrete time points is set
to 1 h. The positions of the three spacecraft at these
time points are calculated by a cubic spline method.
Because the declinations of the selected radio sources
are small, a radio source is regarded as observed if its
right ascension is the same as that of the observing
direction. The declination error will be corrected after
the sequence has been optimized. The observing time
and the observing altitude between two adjacent discrete
time points are computed by the linear interpolation.
With the algorithm mentioned above, we select
all the possible observing opportunities as well as
the corresponding observing altitudes. The results
Fig. 13 History of the observing altitude and all possible observing opportunities.
H. Yang, G. Tang, F. Jiang
are shown in Fig. 13, where the stars denote the
observing opportunities and the dashed lines represent
the boundaries of the four stages.
As shown in the figure, the widths of stage 1,
stage 2, and stage 4 are almost the same. Moreover,
the maximum altitudes of these three stages satisfy
hmax /hmid > 3 and hmid /hmin > 3. We will search the
optimal sequence of the thrice observed radio sources in
these stages. Because the thrice observed radio sources
dominate the performance index, we conducted this
search first. After the optimal thrice observing sequence
has been determined, we conducted optimization of the
sequence with twice and once observed radio sources.
5.2 Optimization of the sequence of the
thrice observed radio sources
The branch and bound method is used for the
optimization of the sequence with thrice observed radio
sources. Because the observations with P = 6 dominate
the performance index, we conducted the searching
in stage 4 first. The searching procedure is shown in
Fig. 14. In this figure, PN k represents the number of
the radio sources.
As illustrated in Fig. 14, we take last 30 points of the
observing opportunities in Fig. 13 as the starting point
in the searching procedure. In this way, the observing
opportunities near the last wave crest are all considered.
Besides, the opportunities with high observing altitude
are preferred. The points whose observing altitude h
is less than 7.0105 km are discarded, as indicated by
the dashed boxes in the figure. Then, we increase the
sequence step by step. As for the point PN k , the points
from PN k1 to PN k50 are considered and the point
Optimization of observing sequence based on nominal trajectories of symmetric observing configuration 33

stage 2 as {QN ,. . . ,Q1 }. The searching procedure is

illustrated in Fig. 15. For the step k, the radio source
varies from QN to Q1 . If its number matches Tk , then
the following two conditions are checked: (1) the time
interval between this radio source and any other selected
radio source is no less than 15 days; (2) its observing
altitude is less than 1/3 of that of the same radio source
in stage 4. If these two conditions are satisfied, this
radio source is regarded as feasible and the observing
sequence increases.
After the branch and bound searching, we obtain
50,872 observing sequences. The ten sequences with
the largest performance indexes are shown in Table
3. In this table, J represents the increment to the
performance index because of the observations with
Fig. 14 Searching procedure of the branch and bound algorithm
P = 3. We find that the given performance indexes
for observations with P = 6 (dashed box: h is not satisfied; dashed are all larger than 115106 km. Because the number
line: the time interval is not satisfied). of the obtained observing sequences is large, only those
with J > 114 106 km will be used in the next step.
is chosen if the observing time interval between this
Last, we search the observing sequences in the part of
point and PN k is no less than 15 days. A termination
stage 2 where no radio sources are selected and in stage
condition of increasing sequences is either no new radio
source can be found or a sequences length reaches 15.
With the branch and bound method mentioned above,
we obtain 158,112 observing sequences and all these
sequences will be used for the next searching. According
to the performance index, the top ten of the obtained
observing sequences are found and listed in Table 2. The
lengths of these observing sequences are all 12 and the
performance indexes are all over 100106 km.
Then, we search the observing sequences in stage 2
with P = 3. Because the observing sequence in stage
3 must have the same radio sources, the searching
procedure is not the same as that shown in Fig.
14. Denote a observing sequence found in stage 4 as Fig. 15 Searching procedure of the branch and bound algorithm
{T1 ,. . . ,T12 } and the numbers of the radio sources in for observations with P = 3.

Table 2 Top ten of the obtained observing sequences with P = 6

Rank Observing sequence J (km)
1 206-200-212-223-199-193-207-220-214-224-201-213 101830796.8
2 223-199-193-207-220-214-206-200-212-224-201-213 101830790.5
3 223-199-193-206-200-212-207-220-214-224-201-213 101830785.8
4 207-220-214-206-200-212-223-199-193-224-201-213 101830785.1
5 206-200-212-223-199-193-207-220-420-224-201-213 101830440.2
6 207-220-420-206-200-212-223-199-193-224-201-213 101830429.8
7 223-199-193-206-200-212-207-220-420-224-201-213 101830429.2
8 223-199-193-207-220-420-206-200-212-224-201-213 101830426.8
9 206-218-212-223-199-193-207-220-214-224-201-213 101828333.3
10 223-199-193-207-220-214-206-218-212-224-201-213 101828325.2
34 H. Yang, G. Tang, F. Jiang

Table 3 Top ten of the obtained observing sequences with P = 6 and 3

Rank Observing sequence J (km) J (km)

1 223-199-193-206-200-212-207-220-214-224-201-213 13288434.3 115119220.1
2 223-199-193-206-200-212-207-220-420-224-201-213 13288618.4 115119047.5
3 223-199-193-206-218-212-207-220-214-224-201-213 13288184.9 115116506.1
4 223-199-193-206-218-212-207-220-420-224-201-213 13288369.0 115116333.6
5 223-217-193-206-200-212-207-220-214-224-201-213 13283593.2 115099630.1
6 223-217-193-206-200-212-207-220-420-224-201-213 13283777.3 115099457.6
7 223-217-193-206-218-212-207-220-214-224-201-213 13283343.9 115096916.2
8 223-217-193-206-218-212-207-220-420-224-201-213 13283527.9 115096743.6
9 223-199-193-206-200-212-207-220-214-224-201-195 13281708.2 115050641.6
10 223-199-193-206-200-212-207-220-420-224-201-195 13281892.3 115050469.1

1 with P = 1. The searching procedure is similar to that
for stage 2. After the branch and bound searching, we
obtain 1,384,288 observing sequences. Then, the best
observing sequence is taken as the optimal observing
sequence. The result is shown in Table 4. The increment
to the performance index in this stage is small because
P = 1 and the observing altitudes are small.
The distribution of the optimal observations with
three times is shown in Fig. 16. As the prediction stated
in Section 4, the observing sequence in stage 4 has the
same appearing order as that in stage 2.
5.3 Optimization of the sequence with
twice and once observed radio sources
After the optimal sequence with thrice observations
is obtained, the branch and bound method is used
for optimization of the sequence with twice and once
observations. Because these observations contribute
Table 4 Optimal observing sequence with three times of observations
Observing sequence
223-199-193-206-200-212-207-220-214-224-201-213
minor to the performance index, we introduce the
approach briefly. First, radio sources that will be
repeatedly observed twice (P = 1, 3) is searched. The
searching procedure is similar to that for thrice
observations, but the searching area for P = 3 are in
stage 3 and stage 1 while searching area for P = 1 is
in stage 1. Only the radio sources which have not been
selected for thrice observation are considered. And the
selected radio sources in this section must satisfy the
constraint of time intervals. Second, all other radio
sources that can be observed once (P = 1) is searched.
The result of the observing sequence with two
observations is listed in Table 5 and the result of the
observing sequence with one observation is listed in
Table 6. The increments due to twice observation and
once observation is much smaller compared with that of
the thrice observation. The total performance index is
126,298,367.8 km which is a little smaller than our final
J (km) J (km)
679587.2 115798807.3

Fig. 16 Distribution of the optimal observations with three times.

Optimization of observing sequence based on nominal trajectories of symmetric observing configuration
Table 5 Result of the observing sequence with two observations
Observing sequence J (km) J (km)
204-209-190 4259296.0 120058103.3
Table 6 Result of the observing sequence with one observation
Observing sequence J (km) J (km)
211-198-203-195-218-205-211-216 6240264.5 126298367.8
result. This is because the observations designed by
the nominal trajectories are not accurate. After orbit
corrections for accurate observations, the performance
index will change.
The distribution of the optimal observations with one
and two times is shown in Fig. 17. According to this
figure, all these observations happen in stage 1 and stage
3.
5.4 Results with accurate observations
After the observations are approximately designed,
orbit corrections are conducted to obtain accurate
observations. The introduction on the orbit corrections
can be found in Ref. [15]. The trajectories of the three
spacecraft for accurate observations are shown in Fig.
18.
The summary of the optimal observing sequence
submitted is shown in Table 7. The final performance
index is J = 128 286 317.0 km.
6 Conclusions
In this paper, the symmetric observing configuration is
used for designing low-thrust trajectories of three
Fig. 17 Distribution of the optimal observations with one and two times.
35
Table 7 Result of the observing sequences submitted
Category Number of points Radio source
223, 199, 193, 206, 200, 212,
Rsp136 12
207, 220, 214, 224, 201, 213
Rsp13 3 204, 209, 190
Rsp11 1 211
Rsp1 6 198, 203, 195, 218, 205, 216
Rsp136 = radio sources observed exactly thrice with P =1, 3,
and 6.
Rsp13 = radio sources observed exactly twice with P =1, 3.
Rsp11 = radio sources observed exactly twice with P = 1 both
times.
Rsp1 = radio sources observed exactly once with P = 1.
spacecraft for observing radio sources. With the
observing configuration, the normal vector of the
triangle plane formed by the three spacecraft rotates in
the ecliptic plane periodically and approximately points
to the radio sources which are close to the ecliptic
plane. The searching procedures using the branch and
bound method based on nominal trajectories for optimal
observing sequence is then proposed.
The obtained optimal sequence has 50 observations
and 22 unique radio sources. Specifically, 12 radio
sources observed exactly thrice with P = 1, 3, and
6; 3 radio sources observed exactly twice with P =
1, 3; 1 radio source observed exactly twice with
both P = 1; and 6 radio sources observed exactly
once with P = 1. The performance J of the optimized
low-thrust trajectories for accurate observations is
128,286,317.0 km. These results are exactly the same as
that we submitted in GTOC8. The second place ranking
of our performance in GTOC8 implies advantage and
effectiveness of our method.
 36
Fig. 18 Low-thrust trajectories of the three spacecraft for
accurate observations.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11672146 and
11432001). The authors thank the organizer of GTOC8.
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Hongwei Yang received his Ph.D.
degree in aerospace engineering from
Tsinghua University, China, in 2017,
and he was a visiting Ph.D. student of
Rutgers University, USA, in 20152016.
His current research interests include
dynamics and control near asteroids,
interplanetary trajectory design, and
optimization. E-mail: yang.hw.thu@gmail.com.
Gao Tang received his bachelor
degree and master degree in aerospace
engineering from Tsinghua University,
China, in 2010 and 2012, respectively.
He is currently pursuing his Ph.D.
degree in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering and Material Science at
Duke University, USA. His current
research interests include dynamics and control in
Optimization of observing sequence based on nominal trajectories of symmetric observing configuration 37

robotics, interplanetary trajectory optimization, and current research interests include astrodynamics, spacecraft
global optimization methods. E-mail: gao.tang@duke.edu. formation flying, and interplanetary trajectory optimization.
E-mail: jiangfh@tsinghua.edu.cn.
Fanghua Jiang received his B.S. degree
in engineering mechanics and Ph.D.
degree in mechanics from Tsinghua
University, China, in 2004 and 2009,
respectively. Since 2009, he has worked
in the School of Aerospace Engineering
at Tsinghua University, China, including
two years of postdoctor, three years of
research assistant, and two years of associate professor up
to now. Currently, he is an AIAA senior member. His