Nanosatellites swarm deployment using decentralized differential drag-based control with communicational constraints

Abstract The paper is devoted to the problem of nanosatellites swarm deployment immediately after their separation from the launcher. Some error in the ejection velocity during the launch is inevitable. It leads to a slightly different orbital period of the satellites, so they gradually move apart along the orbit, and the relative trajectories become unlimited. The decentralized differential drag-based control is applied to the problem of the swarm forming. It is assumed that each satellite is provided with information about the relative motion of the other satellites within a certain communication area. The purpose of the developed control algorithm is to eliminate the relative drift between neighbouring satellites. The separation effect which occurs when the swarm is divided into several independent groups is studied. This effect depends on size of the communication area, on the number of the communicating satellites and the initial conditions. The boundary values of these parameters for twenty, as an example, 3U CubeSats in the swarm are investigated. The influence of the J2 harmonic and uncertainties in the atmosphere density is studied.

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