Optimal Geostationary Satellite Collocation Using Relative Orbital Element Corrections

摘要

The increasing satellite congestion at the geostationary altitude requires positioning a few satellites in the samengeostationary slot, a technique known as collocation. In this paper, we develop a geostationary orbit satellitencollocation algorithm using relative orbital element corrections, which represent the differences between thenimpulsive orbital element corrections of any two spacecraft in a geosynchronous slot. The main idea is thatnformulating the problemof collocation in terms of relative orbital element corrections leaves some of the final valuesnof the orbital elements unconstrained. The freedom rendered by this modeling can be used to find impulsivenmaneuvers minimizing a given performance index. The minimum distance between satellites that guaranteesncollision-freemotion is incorporated into the design process to find necessary and sufficient conditions for the relativeneccentricity and inclination vectors, guaranteeing safe collocation. The proposed collocation algorithm is illustratednin a simulation.