Optimal maneuver planning for the co-location of geostationary satellites

• This paper addresses the problem of determining optimal station keeping and momentum unloading maneuvers for a fleet of satellites co-located in a specific geostationary slot. A leader-follower architecture is implemented to control the motion of the follower satellites relative to the leader satellite. A convex optimizationbased algorithm is proposed to determine the concurrent maneuver planning for the satellites equipped with four on-off electric thrusters. The main objective of the maneuver planning algorithm is to minimize fuel consumption while guaranteeing a safe separation distance between the co-located satellites, as well as managing the stored angular momentum, in order to maintain nadir pointing orientation of each satellite. The proposed algorithm is verified in terms of fuel consumption and constraint enforcement, using numerical simulations that take into account dominant perturbations in the geostationary environment.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Annan elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Onboard space systems

Rymdtekniska system

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)