Search

The paper investigates the relative motion around the planetary displaced orbit. Several kinds of displaced orbits for geocentric and martian cases were discussed. First, the relative motion was linearized around the displaced orbits. Then, two seminatural control laws were investigated for each kind of orbit and the stable regions were obtained for each case. One of the two control laws is the passive control law that is very attractive for engineering practice. However, the two control laws are not very suitable for the Martian mission. Another special semi-natural control law is designed based on the requirement of the Martian mission. The results show that large stable regions exist for the control law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the research of dynamics and control of the satellite formation flying has been attracting a great deal of attentions of the researchers. The theory of the research was mainly based on Clohessy-Wiltshire's (C-W's) equations, which describe the relative motion between two satellites. But according to some special examples and qualitative analysis, neither the initial parameters nor the period of the solution of C-W's equations accord with the actual situation, and the conservation of energy is no longer held. A new method developed from orbital element description of single satellite, named relative orbital element method (ROEM), was introduced. This new method, with clear physics conception and wide application range, overcomes the limitation of C-W's equation, and the periodic solution is a natural conclusion. The simplified equation of the relative motion is obtained when the eccentricity of the main satellite is small. Finally, the results of the two methods (C-W's equation and ROEM) are compared and the limitations of C-W's equations are pointed out and explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]