Peer-to-Peer Refueling for Circular Satellite Constellations

Abstract

In this paper, we study the scheduling problem arising from refueling multiple satellites in a circular constellation. It is assumed that there is no fuel delivered to the constellation from an external source. Instead, all satellites in the constellation are assumed to be capable of refueling each other (peer-to-peer refueling). The total time to complete the rendezvous maneuvers including the refueling itself is specified. During the refueling period each satellite may conduct a fuel exchange with at most one other satellite. Whenever two satellites perform a fuel transfer only one is active, that is, only one of the two satellites initiates an orbital transfer to rendezvous with the inactive satellite. After the transfer of fuel is completed, the active satellite returns to its original orbital slot. The goal is to equalize the fuel among the satellites in the constellation after one refueling period, while minimizing the total fuel consumed during the orbital transfers. It is shown that this problem can be formulated as a maximum-weight matching problem on the reduced constellation graph, which can be solved using standard numerical methods. Numerical results indicate the benefits of a P2P strategy over a single-spacecraft refueling strategy for constellations with a large number of satellites.

An auction algorithm for allocating fuel in satellite constellations using peer-to-peer refueling

“…Therein, the authors investigated optimal scheduling for external refueling [4], and later peer-to-peer refueling within a constellation [7]. The latter paper focused on equalizing the fuel distribution within the constellation by exchanging fuel between the satellites in the constellation ("peer-to-peer" refueling).…”

“…Coordinated refueling of satellite constellations has been recently addressed in [4], [5], [6], [7]. Therein, the authors investigated optimal scheduling for external refueling [4], and later peer-to-peer refueling within a constellation [7].…”

Optimal scheduling of multispacecraft refueling based on cooperative maneuver

“…In these kind of strategies, each satellite can play the role of the refueling/ servicing spacecraft (Shen and Tsiotras, 2005;Dutta and Tsiotras, 2009). Systematical studies have been performed on P2P and mixed refueling strategies (Dutta and Tsiotras, 2006), and it has been shown that a mixed refueling strategy consumes less fuel than a strategy with only one service satellite for a large number of satellites and for short refueling periods (Tsiotras and de Nailly, 2005 (Salazar and Tsiotras, 2006;Dutta andTsiotras, 2006, 2008;Dutta, 2009).…”

Multi-objective planning of a multiple geostationary spacecraft refuelling mission

“…Zhang et al (2014) studied the optimization of a near-circular low Earth orbit (LEO) long-duration multiple spacecraft refuelling mission considering the J 2 perturbation and time-window constraints with one active servicing spacecraft. Shen and Tsiotras (2005) studied the peer-to-peer (P2P) refuelling problem, which seeks fuel equalization among the satellites in the same constellation. Graph theory was introduced to determine the satellite pairs with the objective of minimizing the total fuel consumption during all P2P manoeuvres.…”