Research on Three-Impulsive Approach for Satellite Formation Reconfiguration in Near Circular Orbit

Micro/nano satellites have become the protagonists in most formation flying missions currently, there is an urgent demand to find an approach to quickly calculate multiple-impulsive scheme on board for relative orbital transfer, while considering the optimality of total impulsive consumption. This paper presents an optimal control approach based on multiple impulses for in-plane satellite formation reconfiguration in near circular orbit. A new type of relative orbit motion equation is established based on the initial small deviation in the cylindrical coordinates system in this paper, which is suitable to calculate the solution of relative orbital maneuver by means of multiple impulses. The formation reconfiguration problem is investigated on account of the relative orbit motion, and the orbital motion equations with initial deviations are presented. The formation reconfiguration problem in orbital plane is discussed and analyzed selectively. An optimal three-impulsive approach for relative orbital transfer in plane is obtained by analysis solution based on graphical and numerical way, which is achieved by the combination method from four-impulsive solution. And the method is proved to be effectivity and optimality.