Cluster flight orbit design method for fractionated spacecraft

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to propose an intuitive and effective cluster flight orbit design method for fractionated spacecraft. Design/methodology/approach -Based on the concept of fractionated spacecraft, orbit design requirements for cluster flight in the case of fractionated spacecraft are proposed, and categorized into three requirements: stabilization requirement, passive safety requirement, and the maximum inter-satellite distance requirement. These design requirements are then reformulated in terms of relative eccentricity and inclination vectors (E/I vectors) using a relative motion model based on relative orbital elements (ROEs). By using ROEs theory, the cluster flight orbit design issue is modelled as the distribution of relative E/I vectors for each member satellite in the cluster, and solved by combining three different heuristic search methods and one nonlinear programming (NLP) method. Findings -The simulation results show that the NLP method is valid and efficient in solving the cluster flight orbit design problem and that for some cluster flight scenarios, the heuristic search methods can be adopted to give feasible solutions without the NLP method.Research limitations/implications -The cluster flight scenario in this paper is limited because the cluster should be in the near-circular low earth orbit (LEO), and the relative distance between the member satellites should be small enough to satisfy the relative motion linearization assumption. Practical implications -The cluster flight orbit design method proposed in this paper can be applied by fractionated spacecraft mission designers to propose potential cluster flight orbit solutions. Originality/value -In this paper, the relative E/I vectors method is adopted to propose an intuitive and effective cluster flight orbit design method for fractionated spacecraft.

Orbit design and control method for satellite clusters and its applications to NetSat project

“…Satellite cluster orbit design optimization method is a new research topic. Wang and Nakasuk 14,15 proposed a fueloptimal orbit design method considering the maximum relative distance constraint, passive safety constraint, and fuel consumption constraint, and significant results were obtained. Dang et al 18 obtained a more general solution of the maximal and minimal distances between a pair of satellites.…”

“…where ' is the relative perigee. The relative inclination vector Ái can be defined by using the sine and cosine law for the spherical triangle 12,15 Ái…”

“…The requirements include maximum relative distance requirement, passive safety requirement, and minimum fuel consumption requirement. 15,18 These requirements can be reformulated in terms of relative E/I vectors by substituting equations (6) to (8) where…”

“…In recent years, the relative E/I vectors method is gradually used in the spacecraft cluster flight studies. Wang and Nakasuka [14][15][16] studied the cluster spacecraft flying fuel-optimal control problem based on the relative E/I vectors, and used the genetic algorithms. Wan et al 17 solved the similar optimization problem by Jihe Wang's in the frame of PSO (particle swarm optimization)-SQP (sequential quadratic programming) algorithm.…”

Hybrid Approach to Optimize the Cluster Flying Orbit for Fractionated Spacecraft Based on PSO-SQP Algorithm

“…We force the inclinations of the fractionated spacecraft to be equal, which greatly reduces the influences the J 2 perturbation. In other words, The combination of the relative distances in the xoz plane and the three-dimensional relative distances are chosen as the optimization performance index [3] . , we derive the minimum distance in the cross-track plane based on the proposed configuration parameters, the safety of the cluster flying satellites is guaranteed even in the presence of the along-track uncertainty [4] .…”