Software implementation of autonomous orbital control for formation flying

Spacecraft formation flying has different from the traditional spacecraft orbit control of a single satellite, which has a certain degree of autonomy to maintain specific formation geometries configuration. According to the existing satellite platform technology, a software implementation of autonomous orbit control is proposed as a supplement of the satellite onboard control system. With that same method, the satellite onboard control system hasn´t redesigned the control software architecture. Compared with the real-time feedback control of attitude control system, the autonomous orbit control in accordance with the test dates generates instructions in advance. During the interval of time from the pre-generate control commands generate to the control commands perform, the catalytic bed heating, attitude maneuvers, ground verification and a series of operations have carry out. From the control instruction temporarily stored in the RAM and the loop update instructions, Autonomous control strategy effectively avoid much amount of onboard resources. In this paper, the method to establish formation and formation maintenance is studied and formulate 3-craft formation of In-SAR configuration. The effectiveness of the autonomous orbit control strategy is verified by the data flow loop of that example.