Abstract
This paper aims to investigate the feasibility of using the combination of solar radiation pressure and Coulomb force as a propellantless control method for spacecraft formation around the planetary displaced orbit. Firstly, the dynamical equation of spacecraft formation is derived and linearized. Based on the linearized dynamic model, an integral sliding mode controller (ISMC) is designed. Aimed to stabilize the spacecraft formation, the control method is proposed to adjust the product of the charge and the attitude angles of two spacecrafts. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted and the results show that the controller can make the formation achieve the desired configuration with favorable control performances.
Highlights
Spacecraft formation flying has been considered as an attractive technology because of the improvement it offers over large monolithic spacecraft in terms of system reliability and launch flexibility
Propellantless control methods including using the combination of Coulomb force and solar sail would be widely used space exploration missions, which can save propellant and avoid thruster plume impingement
The concept of solar sail propulsion was first proposed by Tsiolkovsky in 1921, and it has been widely studied in deep space exploration missions around libration point orbit, halo orbit, displaced orbit, etc
Summary
Spacecraft formation flying has been considered as an attractive technology because of the improvement it offers over large monolithic spacecraft in terms of system reliability and launch flexibility. Propellantless control methods including using the combination of Coulomb force and solar sail would be widely used space exploration missions, which can save propellant and avoid thruster plume impingement. The Coulomb formation was first proposed by King et al.[1] in 2002 It uses the electrostatic attraction or repulsion between spacecrafts as a control force without fuel consumption. The concept of solar sail propulsion was first proposed by Tsiolkovsky in 1921, and it has been widely studied in deep space exploration missions around libration point orbit, halo orbit, displaced orbit, etc. The solar sail is unable to generate a thrust component toward the Sun.[3] Compared to solar sailing, Coulomb propulsion of free-flying vehicles is to control the spacecraft
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