Abstract
This chapter illustrates an elative motion analysis to gain familiarity with the problem of maneuvering one spacecraft relative to another, especially when they are in close proximity. In a rendezvous maneuver, two orbiting vehicles observe one another from each of their own free-falling, rotating, clearly non-inertial frames of reference. To base impulsive maneuvers on observations made from a moving platform requires transforming relative velocity and acceleration measurements into an inertial frame else the true thrusting forces cannot be sorted out from the fictitious inertia forces that appear in Newton's law. The chapter presents the relative motion in an orbit, linearization of the equations of relative motion in orbit, the Clohessy–Wiltshire equations (CW equations), two-impulse rendezvous maneuver, and the relative-motion in close proximity circular orbits.
Published Version
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