Orbit Transfer Design and Analysis for the SMILE Satellite

Abstract

Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) aims to understand the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere. The initial orbit of the SMILE satellite is a low Earth orbit, while the target orbit is a highly elliptical orbit. This paper presents the design and analysis of orbit transfer for the SMILE satellite with the constraints of ground stations. According to the maneuver constraints, design principles and strategies have been determined. The orbit transfer strategy is to raise the apogee first and then the perigee, and no active control is carried out for the argument of perigee and the right accession of ascending node. Besides balancing the number of orbit maneuvers and the fuel loss, the orbit transfer is decomposed into 11 maneuvers. To increase the solvability, the idea of multistep approaching the target has been adopted. After a three-step design, the orbit transfer scheme satisfying the observational constraints of the maneuvers by the ground stations has been achieved. Results reveal that the fuel consumed during the orbit transfer is estimated to be 1440 kg, within the fuel budget. Furthermore, the orbital lifetime is calculated to be 7.08 years, which can fully meet the mission’s requirements.