Rapid Determination of Low-Thrust Spacecraft Reachable Sets in Two-Body and Cislunar Problems

Abstract: The reachable set of controlled dynamical systems consist of the set of all possible reachable states from an initial condition, over a certain period of time under various control and operation constraints and exogenous disturbances. For space applications, determination of reachable sets is invaluable for trajectory planning, collision avoidance, ensuring safe and optimal performance in complex, real-world scenarios. Leveraging the connection between minimum-time and reachable sets, we propose a method for rapid determination of reachable sets for finite- and low-thrust spacecraft using an indirect minimum-time multi-stage formulation and the primer vector theory. Reachable set analyses are presented for a minimum-time low-thrust Earth-Mars rendezvous problem and for several cislunar applications under circular restricted three-body dynamics. For the Earth-Mars problem and thruster parameters, results indicate that the minimum-time solution lies within the feasible set of position vectors, but on the boundary of the reachable set of velocity vectors. For the cislunar problems, L2 Halo orbit and Lunar Gateway 9:2 NRHO are considered. Our results indicate that the reachable set of low-thrust spacecraft coincides with invariant manifolds existing in the multi-body dynamical environments.