Study and Simulation of Constellation Absolutely Station-Keeping Based on Relative Orbit Elements

This paper introduces a set of relative orbit elements used to describe the relative motion between the satellites. The definition formulae of relative orbit elements and equations of relative motion between the satellites based on the relative orbit elements are deduced using coordinate transformation. The deduce process is very clear and easy to understand. A detailed program of constellation absolutely station-keeping is formulated in this paper. In the program, along-track dual-velocity pulses are adopted to achieve maneuver control inside the orbit plane. In addition, the program of constellation absolutely station-keeping is simulated using numerical method. The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and correctness of this program.