Safe and Minimal-Thrust Trajectories for In-Space Inspection and Proximity Operations

This paper introduces a family of inspector satellite trajectories that are special cases of the Clohessy-Wiltshire equations, then explains the methodology to patch together those trajectories to create an inspection path that will never result in a collision course with the target spacecraft, even in the case of total loss of propulsion. Such safe trajectories will enable net risk reduction with low-cost inspectors that could be deployed on-demand from the host spacecraft.