Optimal periodic controller for formation flying on libration point orbits

An optimal periodic controller based on continuous low-thrust is proposed for the stabilization missions of spacecraft station-keeping and formation-keeping along periodic Libration point orbits of the Sun–Earth system. Additionally, a new numerical algorithm is proposed for solving the periodic Riccati differential equation in the design of the optimal periodic controller. Practical missions show that the optimal periodic controller (which is designed with the linear periodic time-varying equation of the relative dynamical model) overcomes the problems and limitations of the time-variant LQR controller. Furthermore, nonlinear numerical simulations are presented for the missions of a leader spacecraft station-keeping and three follower spacecraft formation-keeping. Numerical simulations show that the velocity increments for spacecraft control and relative position errors vary little with changes in the altitude of periodic orbits. In addition, the actual trajectories of the leader and the follower spacecraft track the periodic reference orbit with high accuracy under the perturbation of the eccentric nature of the Earth's orbit and the initial injection errors. In particular, the relative position errors obtained by the optimal periodic controller for spacecraft formation-keeping are all in the range of millimeters.