Application of Phase-plane Method in the Co-plane Formation Maintenance of Formation Flying Satellites

Co-plane formation is used usually in formation flying missions. The damage of its configuration is mainly caused by atmosphere drag. Evolution of co-plane formation perturbated by atmosphere was firstly studied. With the assumption that the change rate of the difference between semimajor axes is constant, an analysis was performed using phase-plane method in which two kinds of phase trajectories were presented. Then the achievement of control was discussed, following with an example. The result of simulation indicates that for a co-plane formation, the semimajor axis of which is 1000m, the drift distance can be controlled within -20~40 m, with a period of 1.22 day. Because there is no consumption of fuel in the control process, it is of great significance for the research of distributed satellite system.