Flight Formation Control in Lunar Highly Elliptical Orbit Based on Rendezvous Mode

Abstract

After entering lunar highly elliptical orbit, two microsatellites conduct several orbit maneuvers and finally implement flight formation with the relative range from thousands of kilometers to within 10 kilometers with the support of ground monitoring and control. For the highly elliptical orbit around the moon, the orbit control strategy of formation flight at the rendezvous endpoint is designed based on the multi-impulse rendezvous mode. The linear guidance method is used to iteratively calculate the precise orbit control parameters. A sequential optimized five-impulse orbit maneuvers strategy is designed. Through the progressive segmentation controls of long distance approach,medium distance adjustment and close range capture,the relative status of the orbit planes,arch lines,shapes and phases of the two orbits are corrected. Under the condition of the lunar highly elliptical orbit,the close distance formation of the two microsatellites is achieved with the relative motion trajectory being gradually stable.

Keywords

lunar highly elliptical orbit / formation / rendezvous / orbit control