Control of tetrahedron satellite formation flying in the geosynchronous orbit using solar radiation pressure

Abstract

In this paper, the control of tetrahedron satellite formation flying in the geosynchronous orbit (GEO) using solar radiation pressure is investigated. The long term disturbing effect of the main zonal and tesseral harmonics \(J_{2}\) and \(J_{22}\) of the geopotential are eliminated by adjusting the initial orbital elements, and a tetrahedron satellite formation flying in the GEO is designed. Then a control system using solar radiation pressure is further proposed to maintain the tetrahedron satellite formation, in which a sliding mode control (SMC) is developed to determine the control force. The control force is acquired from the solar sails equipped on the satellites, and the final control law and strategy using solar radiation pressure are presented. Moreover, three kinds of numerical simulations are especially given to verify the validity of the control system using solar radiation. It shows that Laplace precession of the GEO satellite can be avoided effectively, and the in-plane and out-of-plane errors of the formation can be eliminated easily. And hence the control of tetrahedron satellite formation flying in the GEO using solar radiation pressure is proved to be feasible.