Reconfiguration and Control of Non-Equal Mass Three-Craft Coulomb Formation

The paper studied reconfiguration of Coulomb formation from three-craft system to four-craft system. Assumed that three-craft Coulomb system already formed a triangle configuration, then, the fourth Coulomb craft is scheduled to join the existing system so as to form a new static configuration. New possible configurations such as quadrilateral in 2-dimension and tetrahedron in 3-dimension for four-craft Coulomb formation are discussed in the paper. The processing of reconfiguration will not change the original origin and triangle formation. Through the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, the mass, the charge and the position of the fourth Coulomb craft can be calculated for these configurations.

[1]  M. Fehringer,et al.  Introduction The Cluster mission , 2001 .

[2]  G. Ma,et al.  Nonlinear dynamics and reconfiguration control of two-satellite Coulomb tether formation at libration points , 2014 .

[3]  H. Schaub,et al.  Optimal Reconfigurations of Two-Craft Coulomb Formation in Circular Orbits , 2010 .

[4]  Bruce A. Conway,et al.  Particle Swarm Optimization Applied to Space Trajectories , 2010 .

[5]  J. Bittencourt.  Fundamentals of plasma physics , 1986 .

[6]  T. Gombosi.  Physics of the Space Environment , 1998 .

[7]  Nasa Gsfc,et al.  The Cluster mission , 2001 .

[8]  Harsh A. Vasavada.  Four-Craft Virtual Coulomb Structure Analysis for 1 to 3 Dimensional Geometries , 2007 .

[9]  H. Schaub,et al.  Analytic Solutions for Equal Mass Four-Craft Static Coulomb Formation , 2008 .

[10]  R. Olsen,et al.  Importance of differential charging for controlling both natural and induced vehicle potentials on ATS-5 and ATS-6 , 1980 .

[11]  A. Natarjan.  A Study of Dynamics and Stability of Two-Craft Coulomb Tether Formations , 2007 .

[12]  H. Schaub,et al.  Collinear Three-Craft Coulomb Formation Stability Analysis and Control , 2012 .

[13]  M. S. Gussenhoven,et al.  SCATHA survey of high-level spacecraft charging in sunlight , 1986 .

[14]  P. Lawson,et al.  Technology Plan for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer , 2005 .

[15]  James Kennedy,et al.  Particle swarm optimization , 2002, Proceedings of ICNN'95 - International Conference on Neural Networks.

[16]  G. Parker,et al.  Study of Interspacecraft Coulomb Forces and Implications for Formation Flying , 2003 .

[17]  W. H. Clohessy,et al.  Terminal Guidance System for Satellite Rendezvous , 2012 .

[18]  Hanspeter Schaub,et al.  Optimal reconfigurations of two-craft Coulomb formations along manifolds , 2013 .

[19]  John F. Berryman,et al.  Analytical Charge Analysis for Two- and Three-Craft Coulomb Formations , 2007 .

[20]  John F. Berryman,et al.  Necessary conditions for circularly-restricted static coulomb formations , 2006 .