What is it about?
Sampling-based path planning can create lists of possible paths and their associated costs, but have not seen application to the complex environment caused by the gravitational effects of two primary bodies. This paper applies a simple shooting-based guidance algorithm to create safe trajectories for rendezvous in the cislunar environment.
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Photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This paper provides a unique guidance method for the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem that can act as a standard for more complex methods. This paper works to open the research area of sampling-based algorithm application to spacecraft rendezvous to nonlinear environments.
Perspectives
The idea for this paper came directly as inspiration from a prayer. Watching the ways that this algorithm works has been a joy to me. I earnestly hope that further investigation into sampling-based algorithms can provide necessary support for more sophisticated autonomous systems.
Xavier Kipping
University of Alabama
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: An Application of Rapidly Expanding Random Trees to Spacecraft Rendezvous, July 2025, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA),
DOI: 10.2514/6.2025-4051.
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