Interplanetary Vehicle Routing Problem (IVRP)

The Interplanetary Vehicle Routing Problem (IVRP) is introduced as a novel combinatorial optimization variant that extends the capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) to the domain of multi-spacecraft mission design. In IVRP, a fleet of spacecraft departs from a central orbital depot and must visit a set of planetary or orbital targets, delivering cargo subject to payload and propellant (∆V-budget) constraints. Arc costs are not fixed distances but time-dependent transfer costs computed via Lambert’s problem, an orbital two-point boundary-value problem. Planetary alignment windows induce hard time constraints analogous to VRPTW time windows.