JAXA Special Publication: Collection of Papers Presented at the Meeting on the Study of Space Missions Propelled by Low-Thrust and Sustained Acceleration
In this paper, precise position keeping of a deputy spacecraft with respect to a chief spacecraft is considered in the formation flight. Especially, the case where the deputy spacecraft is located at the certain distance from the chief spacecraft in the tangential direction is analyzed under the J(sub 2) perturbation. The relative position between the two spacecraft is affected by the J(sub 2) perturbation, and the two methods to compensate the J(sub 2) effects are considered. One is to set the initial velocity of the deputy spacecraft and the eccentricity of the chief spacecraft orbit to alleviate the relative position variation. The other one is to add the low thrust force to the deputy spacecraft to cancel the J(sub 2) effects. These two cases are analyzed and the appropriate control values are derived to compensate the J(sub 2) perturbation.