Construction and Verification of a Solution of the 8th Global Trajectory Optimization Competition Problem. TEAM 13: GlasgowJena+

This paper describes the methodology to find and verify the solution to the 8th Global Trajectory Optimization Competition (GTOC) problem, developed by Team 13, GlasgowJena+. We chose a stochastic approach to quickly assess a large number (about 1010) of 3-spacecraft formations. A threshold was used to select promising solutions for further optimization. Our search algorithm (implemented in Java) is based on three C++ algorithms called via Java native interface (JNI). A great deal was given to the verification process, which became a core part of our solution. Our final solution has a performance index of 75.9710kmJ=×, 40 distinct observations, and the sum of the final masses of the three spacecraft is 5846.57 kg.