General study of optimal low thrust, limited power transfers between arbitrary elliptical orbits

The Edelbaum study which concerns only coplanar and coaxial cases is generalized. The significance of the corresponding time-free, multi-impulse transfers is shown. The concept of mean Hamiltonian was used to write the differential system of optimal trajectories in the space of orbital elements. The orientation-shape subproblem (concerning the orbit orientation and accentricity) and the dimension-time-cost subproblem (concerning the semi-major axis, time law and consumption) were examined.