Abstract An impulsive control strategy for spacecraft formation flying is suggested considering secular drift between satellites. The drift motion caused by orbital period difference affects impulsive correction. Preventing the drift has been treated as a natural effort in most of formation flying researches. However, this study proposes preserving the drift behavior by delaying the period-matching maneuver. The paper shows that the impulse delay could be effective under some conditions by reducing the required delta-v. Two impulsive control methods are designed by harnessing the drift in pure Keplerian orbits. By using a linear approximation, the proposed methods avoid iterative steps for obtaining the required impulse, so the new strategy can be implemented with less computational burden compared to numerical optimal solutions. Impulse magnitudes between an existing method and the proposed strategy are compared mathematically and the numerical simulation verifies that the impulse reduction could be achieved with the suggested methods.
A Delayed Impulse Control Strategy for Spacecraft Formations
The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences ; 60 , 3 ; 337-365
2013-12-01
29 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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