Stability and Performance of Orbital Elements Feedback for Cluster Keeping Using Differential Drag

Ben-Yaacov, Ohad; Gurfil, Pini

doi:10.1007/s40295-014-0022-0

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Its main disadvantage, however, is that its control authority is (mainly) limited to the in-plane relative motion. The drag force in the out-of-plane direction (occurring for inclinations , -0 due to the rotating atmosphere) is shown to be two orders of magnitude smaller even for highly inclined orbits [19] and unable to provide meaningful control authority. Also, a potential indirect out-of-plane maneuvering by an adjustment of the secular drift of RAAN caused by Earth's oblateness by changing the semi-major axis using drag can be envisaged but is neglected here.…”

Section: Every Control Action Inevitable Cause Orbital Decay Andmentioning

confidence: 97%

On the exploitation of differential aerodynamic lift and drag as a means to control satellite formation flight

et al. 2019

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In order for a satellite formation to maintain its intended design despite present perturbations (formation keeping), to change the formation design (reconfiguration) or to perform a rendezvous maneuver, control forces need to be generated. To do so, chemical and/or electric thrusters are currently the methods of choice. However, their utilization has detrimental effects on small satellites' limited mass, volume and power budgets. Since the mid-eighties, the potential of using differential drag as a means of propellant-less source of control for satellite formation flight is actively researched. This method consists of varying the aerodynamic drag experienced by different spacecraft, thus generating differential accelerations between them. Its main disadvantage, that its controllability is mainly limited to the in-plain relative motion, can be overcome by using differential lift as a means to control the out-of-plane motion. Due to its promising benefits, a variety of studies from researchers around the world have enhanced the state-of-the-art over the past decades which results in a multitude of available literature. In this paper, an extensive literature review of the efforts which led to the current state-of-the-art of different lift and drag based satellite formation control is presented. Based on the insights gained during the review process, key knowledge gaps that need to be addressed in the field of differential lift in order to enhance the current state-of-the-art are revealed and discussed. In closer detail, the interdependence between the feasibility domain / the maneuver time and increased differential lift forces achieved using advanced satellite surface materials promoting quasi-specular or specular reflection, as currently being developed in the course of the DISCOVERER project, is discussed. Keywords Satellite aerodynamics • differential lift • differential drag • formation flight control • propellant less control Acknowledgements This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 737183. This reflects only the author's view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. The author would like to thank the reviewers, the DISCOVERER team as well as several colleagues from IRS for their valuable feedback and suggestions.

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Section: Every Control Action Inevitable Cause Orbital Decay Andmentioning

confidence: 97%

On the exploitation of differential aerodynamic lift and drag as a means to control satellite formation flight

et al. 2019

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“…The chosen case study for the above method is the Space Autonomous Mission for Swarming and Geo-locating Nanosatellites (SAMSON) project, which is a cluster of three identical 6U Cubesats (Ben-Yaacov and Gurfil, 2013;Ben-Yaacov and Gurfil, 2014;Gurfil et al, 2012). One of the important properties of each SAMSON satellite is the large variation of the PCSA due to the deployable solar panels; the minimal cross-sectional area is S min ¼ 0:03 m 2 while the maximal cross-sectional area is S max ¼ 0:194 m 2 .…”

Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Analytical technique for satellite projected cross-sectional area calculation

Ben-Yaacov

Edlerman

Gurfil

2015

Advances in Space Research

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“…Most papers consider two-satellite formation flying with the application of a variety of different control algorithms using a differential drag [12][13][14][15][16]. Differential drag control for multiple satellites is considered in several papers, proposing cyclic and optimal control strategies for cluster flight [17,18], and decentralized control for swarms of satellites with communication restrictions [19]. An application of the differential lift along with the drag for the small satellite rendezvous problem was first proposed by Horsley in [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decentralized Differential Aerodynamic Control of Microsatellites Formation with Sunlight Reflectors

Chernov,

Monakhova,

Mashtakov

et al. 2023

Aerospace

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The paper presents a study of decentralized control for a satellite formation flying mission that uses differential lift and drag to enforce the relative positioning requirements. All spacecraft are equipped with large sunlight reflectors so that, given the appropriate lighting conditions, the formation as a whole can be made visible from the Earth as a configurable pixel image in the sky. The paper analyzes the possibility of achieving a pre-defined lineup of the formation by implementing decentralized aerodynamic-based control through the orientation of sunlight reflectors relative to the incoming airflow. The required relative trajectories are so-called projected circular orbits which ensure the rotation of the image with the orbital period. The choice of the reference trajectory for each satellite is obtained by minimizing the total sum of relative trajectory residuals. The control law is based on the linear-quadratic regulator with the decentralized objective function of reducing the mean deviation of each satellite’s trajectory relative to the other satellites. The accuracy of the required image construction and convergence time depending on the initial conditions and orbit altitude are studied in the paper.

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Stability and Performance of Orbital Elements Feedback for Cluster Keeping Using Differential Drag

Cited by 13 publications

References 28 publications

On the exploitation of differential aerodynamic lift and drag as a means to control satellite formation flight

On the exploitation of differential aerodynamic lift and drag as a means to control satellite formation flight

Analytical technique for satellite projected cross-sectional area calculation

Decentralized Differential Aerodynamic Control of Microsatellites Formation with Sunlight Reflectors

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