Classical Element Feedback Control for Spacecraft Orbital Maneuvers

In this paper, we develop a nonlinear Lyapunov-based control law and a novel mean-motion control strategy. This control is speci¯cally intended for spacecraft orbital maneuvers and for-mation °ying applications. We apply the control to formation-establishment and formation-keeping maneuvers for a proposed NASA mission. To provide target orbit states for feedback control, we develop and apply an algorithm to calculate a formation master orbit represent-ing the geometric center of the formation. We also de¯ne a new technique for choosing nonlinear feedback control gains which appropriately scales the gains for orbital maneuvers. The orbital element feedback control law, augmented by mean motion control, and applied with appropriate gains, forces asymptotic convergence to a spacecraft target orbit, for a large variety of spacecraft maneuvers