Spacecraft Formation Reconfiguration using Impulsive Control Input

This paper presents formation reconfiguration using impulsive control input for spacecraft formation flying. Spacecraft in a formation should change the formation size and/or geometry according to the mission requirements and space environment. To modify the formation radius and geometry with respect to the leader spacecraft, the follower spacecraft generates additional control inputs; the two impulsive control inputs are general control type of the spacecraft system. For the impulsive control input, Lambert's problem is modified to construct the transfer orbit in relative motion, given two position vectors at the initial and final time. Moreover, the numerical simulation results show the transfer trajectories to resize the formation radius in the radial/along-track plane formation and in the along-track/cross-track plane formation. In addition, the maneuver characteristics are described by comparing the differential orbital elements between the reference orbit and transfer orbit in the radial/along-track plane formation and along-track/cross-track plane formation.