Abstract:

For recursive low earth orbit satellites, the groundtrack drift model is formulated and the control problem of groundtrack maintenance is investigated. Firstly, the restriction condition for recursive groundtrack is analyzed and the relationship between groundtrack drift and satellite orbital element deviation is given. Then, the groundtrack maintenance control problem is transformed to a relative orbit control problem using mean orbit elements, in which the reference satellite is virtual and only affected by gravitational orbit perturbation. The relative motion is modeled by Gauss’s variational equations including J₂ and drag perturbations. Based on the Lyapunov theory, the control law for satellite groundtrack maintenance is proposed in terms of relative mean orbital elements. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control scheme can effectively achieve the purpose of groundtrack maintenance.