Comparative Analysis of Principle Maximum and Differential Evolution in the Problem of the Combined Orbital Plane Rotation Maneuver

One of interesting features of the spaceplane is their ability to rotate the orbital plane using aerodynamic and thrust forces. Such a maneuver can significantly save fuel costs in comparison with a non-coplanar maneuver. This paper devoted to the optimization task of orbital plane atmospheric rotation maneuver. The optimization problem is solved by the differential evolution algorithm. The comparison of the results obtained by the differential evolution with the results by the maximum principle is given for cases of minimum maneuver time and maximizing the finite mass. It also presents the results obtained using differential evolution taking into account the temperature limitation.