Fuel Minimization for Constellation Phasing Maintenance of Multi Classes of Low-Cost Satellites

This paper studies the constellation phasing maintenance for satellites of different designs and launched separately from different launchers. Because of the difference of designs, the satellites have different ballistic drag characteristics. Due to the different launches, the satellites will not be likely on the same orbit plane. These factors cause the orbit phasing control to be demanding. With consideration of cost reduction and hardware availability, satellites may use the low efficient gas nitrogen propulsion subsystem. The capacity of fuel is limited for the satellite mass constraint, thus, leading to the minimization of fuel consumption to be critical. This paper presents the orbit control algorithms, named as Wait-and-Hit, for minimizing fuel use in the constellation rephrasing and phasing maintenance. The Argo satellite system is presented to demonstrate this concept. The study shows the significant reduction of the fuel consumption can be achieved. Furthermore, the orbit phasing operations can be much simplified without the needs of high accurate orbit determination and control. The algorithms, with the merits, can be applied to the general cases of low-cost satellite constellation