Forward-integration Riccati-based feedback control for spacecraft rendezvous maneuvers on elliptic orbits

We apply the forward-integrating Riccati-based feedback controller, which has been developed in our previous work for stabilization of time-varying systems, to a maneuvering spacecraft in an elliptic orbit around the Earth. We simulate rendezvous maneuvers on Molniya and Tundra orbits. We demonstrate that the controller performs well under thrust constraints, in the case where the spacecraft can thrust in only the orbital tangential direction, in the case where the thrusters may operate only intermittently due to faults or power availability, with thrust direction errors, and, finally, in an output feedback configuration where only relative position measurements are available.