Minimum fuel station keeping maneuver strategy for Turksat geostationary satellites

A program, METUGEO, is developed to predict the orbital parameters of a geostationary satellite. The program is verified by comparing its predictions to a similar program used at the TURKSAT ground control station. The program is employed to test and compare long term inclination (north) maneuver strategies for TURKSAT series satellites. Two strategies are investigated. The first one being the actual strategy used at the TURKSAT ground control station, and the second one is the long-term strategy proposed by Soop. One year long experiment, using the two strategies mentioned, is conducted. It is found that the strategy proposed by Soop results in less fuel consumption, than the actual control strategy used at the TURKSAT ground control stations. Consequently, it is shown that the operational life of the spacecraft may be extended by proper maneuvering strategies