A technique for the fine longitude control of a geostationary satellite as demonstrated on insat‐1B

Abstract

AbstractThe possibilities of finer longitude control of a geostationary satellite are studied with a view to providing insight into the problem of co‐location of satellites. It is shown that for a three‐axis stabilized satellite such as INSAT‐1B, placed close to an equilibrium longitude, the propellant expenditure for satellite attitude control is considerably larger than that required for longitude drift control. An experiment was conducted on INSAT‐1B in which the forces arising from the attitude control thrusters are optimally used to counteract the force due to the solar radiation pressure thereby reducing the perturbations on the orbital eccentricity vector. This is accomplished by suitably switching between the redundant attitude control thrusters located in the positive and negative roll faces of the satellite. The extent to which the effects of the solar radiation pressure are nullified is quantitatively estimated from the observed behaviour of the eccentricity vector. Without any recurrent propellant expenditure it is shown that it is possible to restrict the longitudinal excursions to nearly half of the normally allocated ±0·1° longitude band.