A twin satellite system comprising of two spacecraft halves connected through four, very short tethers has been considered for specific communication application in high altitude elliptic orbits. The tether tension moments based on the open-loop control 1aw developed analytically facilitate simultaneous handling of the twin problems: longitudinal system drift relative to the ground station as well as attitude excitation induced by eccentricity. Combining open-loop control law with a simple feedback scheme results in a significant improvement in attitude precision for system a1ignment along the line-of sight. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed concept, the particular case of 24-h elliptic orbits has been considered. The high degree of system pointing precision along the drifting line-of sight now possible even with very short tether lengths makes the concept particularly attractive for future space missions.
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