Earth-centered angle station-keeping in low-earth orbits with yaw-steering constraints

摘要

The Earth-centered angle between the reference and actual positions of a satellite is the natural station-keeping criterion for broad-band telecommunication satellites. This paper presents the peculiarities of the related station-keeping strategy for a satellite in yaw-steering mode on low-Earth orbit in case the tangential maneuvers can only be done when the thrusters -fixed with respect to the satellite- are sufficiently close to the optimal thrust direction. For illustration, study cases are selected in the range of altitudes foreseen for emerging telecommunication system (800-1500 km).