Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering

The paper deals with the design of an improved model predictive control scheme for achieving station-keeping of spacecrafts in a quasi Halo orbit around the $L_2$ point in the Earth-Moon system. The improvement is obtained thanks to a multi-rate sampled-data trajectory planner that allows for simplifying the optimization problem of the model predictive controller while guaranteeing feasibility and convergence to the desired orbit. The multi-rate planner is designed based on a simplified model of the dynamics under a preliminary nonlinear regulation feedback. The proposed control scheme is shown to outperform recent station-keeping nonlinear model predictive control designs both in terms of tracking error and energy expenditures in different situations. Finally, a brief study of aspects pertaining to computational time are carried out so highlighting the possibility for real time implementation on modern hardware.