Spacecraft Formation Reconfiguration in Elliptic Reference Orbits

This paper deals with the maneuver method for the spacecraft formation reconfiguration in the elliptic reference orbit considering two control input types. During the satellite operation, the formation size and/or geometry should be modified according to the mission requirements and space environment. The follower spacecraft can change the formation radius and/or geometry with respect to the leader spacecraft, while minimizing the control effort during the maneuver. For the continuous control input, the optimal control problem in the relative motion is solved based on the nonlinear programming method, where the initial and final relative positions and velocities are specified in the local frame. For the impulsive control input, on the other hand, the Lambert’s problem is modified to construct the transfer problem in the relative motion, given two position vectors at the initial and final time and the flight time. Furthermore, the minimum velocity change is investigated through the grid search for transferring orbit using the impulsive control input. As a result, the transfer trajectories to resize the formation radius and change the formation geometry are presented by performing the numerical simulation.

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