• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.56-64
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• 2006

Station collocation of closely placed multiple GEO spacecraft is required to avoid the problem of collision risk, attitude sensor interference and/or occultation. This paper presents the method of obtaining the orbit correction scheme for collocating two GEO spacecraft within a small station-keeping box. The relative motion of each spacecraft with respect to the virtual geostationary satellite is precisely expressed in terms of power and trigonometry functions. This closed-form orbit propagator is used to define the constraint conditions which meet the requirements for the station collocation. Finally, the technique of constrained optimization is used to find the orbit maneuver sequence. Nonlinear simulations are performed and their results are compared with those of the classical method.