TRAJECTORY DESIGN OF THE GALAXY SETTLEMENT-SUMMARY OF THE CHAMPION TEAM TO THE 10TH GLOBAL TRAJECTORY OPTIMIZATION COMPETITION

The 10th Global Trajectory Optimisation Competition hosted by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) came to an end in June 2019, and the Chinese team won the championship for the first time. For the first time in history, this competition is based on the sci-fi mission, designing the optimal orbit to settle in 100000 Milky Way stars. This paper introduces the tasks, gravity model and spacecraft maneuver model of the Galaxy settlement mission, and analyzes the merit function of this competition specifically. The tree structure is introduced to represent the settlement solution, and the design method of the initial settler distribution is described. Simultaneously, the forward and reverse tree generation strategies are introduced and compared. The methods of local optimization and topology reconstruction of settlement trees used in the competition are briefly introduced. In the galaxy-s stars map, the champion solution was presented in tree structures. The significance of this competition was summarized and some useful inspirations were obtained.