Orbit Control of Fly-around Satellite with Highly Eccentric Orbit Using Solar Radiation Pressure

The method of controlling highly eccentric accompanying flight orbit using the solar wing is proposed in this paper. The formation is maintained by controlling the orbit of the accompanying satellite (follower). The accompanying satellite rotates around its inertial principal axis with a constant angular velocity. The control on the accompanying satellite is divided into the in-plane control and out-of-plane control. The in-plane control is superior to the out-of-plane control. The out-of-plane control force is applied when the in-plane error is eliminated or the in-plane control force can not be supplied due to some geometrical factors. By the sliding mode control method, the magnitude and direction of the control force required by the in-plane orbit control are calculated. Then accordingly, the expression of the solar wing orientation with respect to the satellite body in the control process is derived, so that by adjusting the orientation of the solar wing, the required control force can be obtained. Finally, the verification on this method is performed by numerical simulations, including the orbit adjustment, error elimination, and the orbit maintenance. It is shown that this method can keep the error less than 5 m, and it is feasible for the space formation flight.