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Multi-burn

The Multi-burn maneuver type varies the centroid and delta-V of a sequence of between 2 and 20 burns with a fixed delta-V direction. Multi-burn mode can model both impulsive and finite burns, and is most commonly used for low-thrust propulsion platforms which are unable to achieve sufficient delta-V to effectively mitigate collision risk with a single burn.

The Multi-burn tradespace allows configuration of the number of maneuvers, burn duration, and the spacing between maneuvers, relative to the orbit period. Like the other tradespace types, maneuvers in the Multi-burn tradespace are aligned relative to the antipode of the TCA, giving the maximum possible effect on the spacecraft's state at TCA.

A first burn close to TCA often leaves too little time to complete the configured number of maneuvers. Maneuver Designer still reports the plan's result in that case, and a high-fidelity plan generated from it omits any maneuver beginning after TCA from the OPM and ephemeris products.

Settings​

Alongside the shared tradespace settings, Multi-burn exposes:

  • Burn count: the number of burns in the sequence, between 2 and 20.
  • Burn spacing (orbital periods): the spacing between burns, relative to the orbit period.
  • Per-burn duration: the duration of each burn.
  • Isp: the specific impulse of the propulsion system.

The dV Direction applies to every burn in the sequence, and dV magnitude is the delta-V of each individual burn. The achieved total counts only the burns executed before TCA.