• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.527-536
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• 2005

The perturbations caused by the Sun and the Moon are predominantly out-of-plane effects causing a change in the inclination and in the right ascension of ascending node of a geostationary satellite. Due to the change of the inclination, subsatellite latitude of the geostationary satellite has a daily variations of the same magnitude of the inclination. Therefore we need a facility to control the orbital inclination and right ascension of ascending node for maintaining the satellite position in specified subsatellite latitude boundary using thrusters. In this paper we studied North-South station keeping strategies of the COMS-1 such as Track-Back Chord Target (TBCT) method, Maximum Compensation Target (MCT) method and Minimum Fuel Target (MFT) method. We accomplished those North-South station keeping maneuvers for one year starting from December 2008. The required velocity increments to maintain the satellite are estimated as MCT 52.6065m/s, TBCT 52.2383m/s, MFT 51.5428m/s, respectively. We demonstrated that TBCT and MFT methods are proper to North-South station keeping for COMS-1. MFT method showed the minimum required velocity increments whereas TBCT traced narrow inclination boundary area for North-South station keeping.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.150-157
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• 1997

A precise determination of the fuel efficiency is important because North/South station keeping, which controls the inclination of the geostationary orbit, consumes most of the satellie fuel. We estimate the amount of fuel required during the lifetime of the KOREASAT when MFT(Minimum Fuel Target) technique is adopted, and the result is compared to those when MCT(Maximum Compensation Target) and TBCT(Track-Back Chord Target) technique are applied. From this computation, we find that if MFT technique is adopted, the lifetime of the satellite can be extended at least 45 and 15 days, respectively, compared to those consumed with MCT and TBCT technique.