The charged relative equilibria of a two spacecraft Coulomb formation moving in the contextof a restricted two-body system and a circularly restricted three-body system are investigated.For a two-spacecraft formation moving in a central gravitational field it is oftenassumed that the center of the circular orbit is located at the primary mass, and the centerof mass of the formation orbits around the primary in a great circle orbit. The relative equilibriumis called great circle if the center of mass of the formation moves on the plane withthe center of the gravitational field residing on it; otherwise, it is called a non-great-circleorbit. Previous research shows that non-great-circle equilibria in low Earth orbits, have adeflection from the great circle equilibria of about a degree when spacecraft with unequalmasses are separated by 350 km. This paper investigates these equilibria (radial, tangentialand orbit normal in circular Earth orbit and Earth-Moon Libration points) in the context oftwo spacecraft Coulomb formation, and shows that the equilibria deflections are negligible(on the order of 10?6 degrees) even for very heterogeneous mass distributions. Further, thenon-great-circle equilibria conditions for a two-spacecraft virtual Coulomb structure at theLagrangian Libration points are developed. The development is based on exact gravitationaland Coulomb potentials and considers the effect of mass asymmetry of the formation in theproblem formulation.
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