Earth-Moon Triangular Libration Point Spacecraft Formations

摘要

This paper presents a first investigation into the existence and nature of formation flight trajectories near the Earth-moon triangular libration points in the circular restricted three-body problem. Analytical equations of motion describing the relative dynamics within a rotating, lead-satellite-centered coordinate frame are derived from equations describing the absolute dynamics. Long-period and short-period trajectories of the relative motion are isolated, and parallel and leader-follower formations are designed for the long-period case. Results are compared to numerically integrated data: the total range error in all cases is less than 3% of the motion's maximum amplitude. Circular and projected circular formations are also described for the further simplified case of planar approximate motion based on the short-period regime. Formations are investigated to quantify their sensitivity to initial conditions. Potential effects of perturbing forces on the relative orbits are discussed, showing the solar point mass and solar radiation pressure to be significant, and Earth oblateness to be negligible.