Earth-Moon L2 Libation Point Orbit Long Term Station Keeping

Abstract

Earth-Moon L2 libration point is unstable. The necessary orbit station keeping operations are required for spacecraft in order to maintain around Earth-Moon L2 libration point for a long time. Long term station keeping operations fortwo types of orbits, quasi-Halo orbit and Lissajous orbit, are studied. Control once per cycle when crossing the xz plane is used as the control strategy. Control values are chosen by single step prediction. One year trajectories of quasi-Halo orbit and Lissajous orbit with station keeping are simulated in the real celestial mechanics model respectively. Comparison of simulation results shows that the cost of station keeping for Lissajous orbit is lower than that of the quasi-Halo orbit. This can be explained from orbit topological configuration. Corresponding contrast experiment is designed to verify the inference. Research results have engineering reference for Earth-Moon L2 libration point selection, station keeping control strategy design, long term trajectory and effect analysis.

Keywords

Earth-Moon L2 libration point / long term station keeping / quasi-halo orbit / Lissajous orbit