Francesco Topputo is co-funder and ex-CEO of Dinamica Srl, an Italian engineering firm. He got his PhD from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, on non-Keplerian orbits for space applications. With Dinamica, he has managed the ESA ITT study on Hybrid Propulsion Transfers, and he has taken part to other ESA studies as the ITT on End-of-Life Disposal for Lagrange-Point and HEO Missions. He is responsible for the activities of Dinamica in the FP7 project Stardust. He has also a position as assistant professor at Politecnico di Milano. He has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications.
Introduction to Optimal Control and Space Trajectory Optimization
The aim of this lecture is to introduce the optimal control theory and to specialize it to the case of space trajectory optimization. First, the basic notions of both optimal control theory and nonlinear programming problems are introduced. These two concepts are presented with the aid of examples, and the numerical implementation into a computational environment is shown. Next, the space trajectory optimization problem is presented, and practical problems are given. Both impulsive and low-thrust propulsions are treated.