@article{Armellin2025, 
author = {Roberto Armellin and Andrea Bellome and Xiaoyu Fu and Harry Holt and Cristina Parigini and Minduli Wijayatunga and Jack Yarndley},
title = {GTOC12: Results from TheAntipodes},
year = {2025},
journal = {Astrodynamics},
volume = {9},
number = {1},
pages = {55-75},
keywords = {GTOC, trajectory optimization, asteroid mining, direct methods, beam search, convex programming},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s42064-024-0219-3},
doi = {10.1007/s42064-024-0219-3},
abstract = {We present the solution approach developed by the team "TheAntipodes" during the 12th edition of the Global Trajectory Optimization Competition (GTOC12). An overview of the approach is as follows: (1) generate asteroid subsets, (2) chain building with beam search, (3) convex low-thrust trajectory optimization, (4) manual refinement of rendezvous times, and (5) optimal solution set selection. The generation of asteroid subsets involves a heuristic process to find sets of asteroids that are likely to permit high-scoring asteroid chains. Asteroid sequences "chains" are built within each subset through a beam search based on Lambert transfers. Low-thrust trajectory optimization involves the use of sequential convex programming (SCP), where a specialized formulation finds the mass-optimal control for each ship's trajectory within seconds. Once a feasible trajectory has been found, the rendezvous times are manually refined with the aid of the control profile from the optimal solution. Each ship's individual solution is then placed into a pool where the feasible set that maximizes the final score is extracted using a genetic algorithm. Our final submitted solution placed fifth with a score of 15,489.}
}