Dynamical evolution of natural formations in libration point orbits in a multi-body regime

•Natural regions near libration point orbits to place small formations of spacecraft.•Regions of small relative accelerations between spacecraft maintain a formation.•Low natural drift regions reduce the cost to maintain a formation fixed inertially.

This investigation explores the natural dynamics in a multi-body regime for formation flying applications. Natural regions that are suitable to maintain multiple spacecraft in a loose formation are determined in an inertial coordinate frame. Locating a formation of spacecraft in these zones leads to a smaller variation in the mutual distance between the spacecraft and the pointing direction of the formation. These suitable regions approximate quadric surfaces along a reference trajectory and the relationship between the dynamical evolution of the quadric surfaces and the eigenstructure of the reference trajectory is examined.