Abstract
Proximate spacecraft formation flying has many applications in high accurate earth observation and astronomy. In comparison to conventional or electronic thrust, Coulomb thrust has obvious advantages in close-formation control, such as fast throttling, nearly propellantless features and no thruster plume impingement. This paper presents the concept of charged-spacecraft formation and deployment, also investigates the Coulomb-force control for desired spacecraft formations. It is assumed that the charged chief spacecraft has several controllable charged spheres distributed around it and deputies are charged spheres. The deputies are deployed from the chief spacecraft to the desired formation orbits under the active charge control. In order to deploy these deputies subject to the constraints on the limited controllable charges, the transition trajectories are planned by using pseudo-spectral discretization method. Then a charge feedback controller is designed to track the transition trajectories and the desired formation. Numerical simulation results show that one or more deputies can be deployed by controlling the limited charge of the chief spacecraft.
Highlights
Electrostatic force used for spacecraft control was first proposed by Cover et al [1]
King et al [2] first put forward the concept of Coulomb formation flying (CFF) that the Coulomb force generated from a chief spacecraft and the deputies is used to maintain or reconfigure the formation flying
Spacecraft cluster form, close proximity spacecraft formation flying for example, has obvious advantages compared with a single large spacecraft, whose weight is reduced and configuration is variable, and it can be deployed and repaired by multiple launching [3]
Summary
Electrostatic force used for spacecraft control was first proposed by Cover et al [1]. Xu: Charged-Spacecraft Formation: Concept, Deployment and Coulomb-Force Control. The dynamics and control of one and multiple small deputies deployed from chief large spacecraft to the desired formation configuration at high Earth orbits (HEO) are discussed in this paper. In equation (1), the last item Cu on the right represents the total Coulomb force, while equation (3) shows that C is the coefficient matrix related to the position vector r and Ri. equation (1) is strongly nonlinear and it is a challenge to controllably manipulate deputies from an initial position near the chief to desired relative orbits in formation flying. The transition trajectories from the chief to the desired formation trajectory are planned using pseudo-spectral method to avoid the deputies becoming unable to converge to the desired trajectory under limited control force.
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