Computer Simulation of Station Keeping Costs of Halo Orbits in Sun-Earth system

Abstract

Spacecraft missions to the collinear libration points of the Sun-Earth system have long proved scientific merit by providing valuable observational data. The unstable nature of the orbits around the mentioned points in space requires the development of control strategies for such missions in order to hold the spacecraft in vicinity of the libration points. We investigate a possible control strategy for the spacecraft on the halo orbits around the L1 and L2 collinear libration points aiming to evaluate the station keeping performance. The station-keeping strategy is based on the elimination of unstable component of motion by periodical velocity corrections performed in unstable directions. The simulations were performed in circular restricted three body problem. The impact of spacecraft position and velocity measurement accuracy, as well as the precision of the control maneuvers, on the station keeping costs, was calculated and studied. It was found that the measurement accuracy of the velocity components of motion and the precision of control burns implementation have the highest impact on the performance of the control strategy.