Noninteger Transfer Orbits for Circular Orbit Phasing Maneuvers

The transfer technique used by Fallin (1975) in the derivation for optimal intersatellite transfers between locations in a given circular orbit subject to a time limitation involved the familiar method of employing an integer number of elliptical phasing orbits, which resulted in transfer opportunities only at particular times. In this paper, a transfer technique is developed using, in general, nonintegral transfer ellipses, which permits transfer opportunities as a continuous function of time. As an example, the change in velocity for a simple transfer geometry is analyzed using both the discrete and continuous methods to demonstrate an improved local minimum resulting from the continuous technique.