Optimal maneuver control of spacecraft formations in eccentric reference orbits

A time-fuel optimized control method is presented for spacecraft formation maneuver in eccentric reference orbit, in which an optimal index reflecting the requirement of fast maneuver and fuel saving simultaneously is adopted. The optimized control problem was solved in the framework of linear program algorithms. The optimal maneuver time span with corresponding amplitude, direction and applying time of the thrust pulses, together with the sub-optimal thrust pulse number were determined by iterating the optimized procedure. Two numeric simulations, one of which ignored earth perturbations while the other included full earth perturbation, were conducted respectively by using Matlab and Astrogator in Satellite Tool Kit (STK). The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.