The IRASSI mission, aimed at studying pre-biotic conditions in Earth-like planets, is composed of five free-flying telescopes operating around the Sun-Earth/Moon L2 point. To address the challenge of finding suitable science task plans and relative positions in three-dimensional space which satisfy science goals associated with the target being observed, a formation reconfiguration planning architecture, called iSCOUT, has been devised. iSCOUT is com-posed of several modules, among which the Reconfiguration Module (ReM) is presented in the manuscript. The ReM assigns optimized post-maneuver positions of the individual telescopes for the next to-be-observed target. Two different optimization methods are implemented and analysed (both in an IRASSI context and in a general formation setting): a fuel-based and a Δ𝑉- based one, both pursuing a homogenous use of resources. The effect of simulation variables such as initial wet mass and fuel mass balance, thruster settings and cost-function weighting parameters is evaluated with respect to overall used fuel/fuel balance, Δ𝑉/Δ𝑉 balance and maneuver duration. Pre-liminary results show that effective envelopes differ for heterogeneous for-mation compositions (unbalanced wet mass), but similar envelopes apply to initially fuel-unbalanced formations with similar wet mass. In addition, the analysis suggests that higher performance envelopes are more consistent for the Δ𝑉-based approach across different initial conditions.    «

The IRASSI mission, aimed at studying pre-biotic conditions in Earth-like planets, is composed of five free-flying telescopes operating around the Sun-Earth/Moon L2 point. To address the challenge of finding suitable science task plans and relative positions in three-dimensional space which satisfy science goals associated with the target being observed, a formation reconfiguration planning architecture, called iSCOUT, has been devised. iSCOUT is com-posed of several modules, among which the Rec...    »