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ANALYSIS OF RELATIVE MOTION OF COLLOCATED SATELLITES WITH GEOMETRIC CONSTRAINTS F.J. de Bruijn(1) and E.

Gill(2) (1) DLR-Standort Bremen, Robert-Hooke-Str. 7, 28359, Bremen, Germany +49 412 24420 1286, Frederik.bruijn@dlr.de (2) TU Delft, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS, Delft, the Netherlands, e.k.a.gill@tudelft.nl Keywords: collocation, geometric constraints, sensor constraints, relative orbits ABSTRACT Collocation of geostationary satellites is generally achieved using the eccentricity inclination (e/i) vector separation. This method is based on the fact that that estimation, prediction and control of relative motion in radial and normal direction is generally more accurate than in tangential direction. By maximizing the separation in radial direction at zero separation in normal direction, and vice versa, the risk of collisions is minimized. This same method is applied in LEO, for example for the TSX / TDX formation and the PRISMA mission. The concept is also of high interest for clusters of fractionated spacecraft, where generally no specific formation geometry requirements are present, apart from minimum and maximum separation distances. When using the concept of e/i vector separation, one satellite may enter the field-ofview of the sensors on one of the other satellites in the cluster, at some point in time during relative motion. For a cluster controlled using the principle of e/i vector separation this is, e.g., the case for nadir pointing sensors (assuming that the satellites are controlled towards the same argument of latitude), but it may also happen for star sensors. Depending on the type of sensor that is blocked (or interfered with) this could e.g. result in an outage of the signal, an impediment of an observation, or a loss of attitude information. A potential solution to this problem of sensor interference lies in the design of relative motion orbits. The goal of this paper is to provide, based on an analysis of a set of geometric constraints in terms of a sensors pointing direction and field of view, a set of guidelines for designing relative motion orbits for a cluster of satellites. Figure 1 schematically demonstrates the constraint: > /2. An analysis is made of how a geometric constraint of a sensor with a certain pointing direction and field-of-view, which is easily visualized in Cartesian coordinates, can be represented in relative (equinoctial) orbital elements, including the relative eccentricity and inclination vectors. A key parameter that affects the relative motion and thereby the potential violation of a geometric constraint is the phasing angle between relative eccentricity and inclination vectors. The effect of changes in this phasing angle is investigated for a sensor that can point in any direction within a sphere. It is instructive to characterize the variation of the angle between a neighboring spacecraft and the viewing direction of the sensor as a function of the relative phasing angle between e/i vectors. This can be represented in contour plots or 3D surface plots.

Figure 1: Schematic of sensor field-of-view constraint It is determined for a sensor pointing in any direction what the corresponding phasing angle between e/i vectors is, which corresponds to the largest minimum . Figure 1 shows how is defined. Since the satellites are in constant motion with respect to each other, changes continuously. The smallest over one orbit defines the constraint; it should be larger than the half angle of the sensors field of view . The largest minimum corresponds to the phasing angle for which this minimum is maximal. As an example, Figure 2 shows the variation of this largest minimum as a function of the constraint direction (where the constraint direction is given in spherical coordinates, by a longitude and latitude in the positive octant). The key result from the plot is the largest minimum that can be achieved as a function of the sensors pointing direction. A corresponding plot will show the phasing angle at which this largest minimum is achieved. In the paper is shown that due to the (anti) symmetry of the problem only one octet of the sphere has to be investigated, while the results for the other octets can be derived from this investigation. The paper will also present a case study that shows how a relative orbit can be designed which respects such constraints. The exemplary case of a nadir pointing sensor and a South looking star sensor is treated. The analysis in this paper focuses on formations around the same argument of latitude and thus trailing formations or pendulum type formations where such geometric constraints may be trivial are excluded from the analysis. The satellites are assumed to be non-rotating in the Hill frame (e.g. nadir pointing). The sensors on the different satellites in the cluster are assumed to be pointing in identical (/similar) directions. The developed guidelines may be applied to support designing collocations with non-homogeneous sensor directions. However the existence of such orbits cannot be guaranteed for arbitrarily sized clusters with a multitude of sensors pointing in arbitrary directions.

Figure 2: Largest minimum angle min as a function of latitude and longitude of the constraint

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