Constellation Design and Low-Thrust Station-Keeping Strategy for Satellites in Inclined Geosynchronous Orbits

The fuel consumption required by the orbital maneuvers when correcting perturbations on the orbit of a spacecraft due to a perturbing body was estimated. The main goals are the measurement of the influence of the eccentricity of the perturbing body on the fuel consumption required by the station keeping maneuvers and the validation of the averaged methods when applied to the problem of predicting orbital maneuvers. To study the evolution of the orbits, the restricted elliptic three-body problem and the single- and double-averaged models are used. Maneuvers are made by using impulsive and low thrust maneuvers. The results indicated that the averaged models are good to make predictions for the orbital maneuvers when the spacecraft is in a high inclined orbit. The eccentricity of the perturbing body plays an important role in increasing the effects of the perturbation and the fuel consumption required for the station keeping maneuvers. It is shown that the use of more frequent maneuvers decreases the annual cost of the station keeping to correct the orbit of a spacecraft. An example of an eccentric planetary system of importance to apply the present study is the dwarf planet Haumea and its moons, one of them in an eccentric orbit.

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Low-thrust station keeping guidance for a 24-hour satellite

AIAA Journal ◽

10.2514/3.5870 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 8 (7) ◽

pp. 1186-1192 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

RAUL R. HUNZIKER

Keyword(s):

Low Thrust ◽

Station Keeping

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Low-Thrust Out-of-Plane Orbital Station-Keeping Maneuvers for Satellites

Mathematical Problems in Engineering ◽

10.1155/2012/532708 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2012 ◽

pp. 1-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Vivian M. Gomes ◽

Antonio F. B. A. Prado

Keyword(s):

Main Idea ◽

Low Thrust ◽

Station Keeping ◽

Control Approach ◽

Orbital Maneuvers ◽

Hybrid Optimal Control ◽

The Earth ◽

Out Of Plane ◽

Orbital Correction ◽

Optimal Control Approach

This paper considers the problem of out of plane orbital maneuvers for station keeping of satellites. The main idea is to consider that a satellite is in an orbit around the Earth and that it has its orbit is disturbed by one or more forces. Then, it is necessary to perform a small amplitude orbital correction to return the satellite to its original orbit, to keep it performing its mission. A low thrust propulsion is used to complete this task. It is important to search for solutions that minimize the fuel consumption to increase the lifetime of the satellite. To solve this problem a hybrid optimal control approach is used. The accuracy of the satisfaction of the constraints is considered, in order to try to decrease the fuel expenditure by taking advantage of this freedom. This type of problem presents numerical difficulties and it is necessary to adjust parameters, as well as details of the algorithm, to get convergence. In this versions of the algorithm that works well for planar maneuvers are usually not adequate for the out of plane orbital corrections. In order to illustrate the method, some numerical results are presented.

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