Patent US 6,496,741

A method, computer system, and program product for optimizing a useful objective function with respect to a dynamic parameter vector and a static parameter vector. The method, called the static/dynamic control (MDC) method, either minimizes or maximizes the useful objective function subject to a state equation, initial conditions, terminal conditions, constraints, and dynamic limitations. The SDC method includes an algorithm having two formulations: a period formulation and a fully continuous formulation. With the period formulation, the dynamic optimization variables associated with the dynamic limitations are permitted to be discontinuous, parametric functions of time. With the fully continuous formulation, the dynamic optimization variables are permitted to be continuous, non-parametric functions of time. The SDC method is computer implementable and employs an iterative process including an inner loop and an outer loop. The inner loop terminates when the objective function has changed by a satisfactory amount during a fixed outer-loop iteration. The outer loop terminates when the SDC procedure converges. The SDC method may be used to optimize a spacecraft trajectory objective and a spacecraft design objective simultaneously. Optimizing spacecraft objectives via SDC does not require approximating the physics or dynamics of space flight. Thus, any number of gravitating bodies, gravitational harmonics, radiation pressure, atmospheric drag, and general relativistic corrections can be accounted for when using the SDC method. The SDC method does not require prespecification of a planetary flyby sequence for space flight and is capable of identifying optimal flyby sequences.