Fuel-balanced satellite formation keeping research

How to balance each satellite fuel consumption during the period of satellite formation keeping, which can increase the total life span, is of great importance. For the plane circle formation which center was a virtual satellite, a new formation keeping control method was presented considering the fuel equalization constraint. The satellite which remain fuel was the least was chosed to be the reference satellite, and its state relative to the virtual center was considered to be ideal. By optimizing the phasing angle of the reference satellite, the motivation magnitude of the other satellites can be programmed, which made the satellite which remain fuel more consume more fuel. Finally, the impulse of each satellite was calculated by linear programming. Simulation results manifest, with this new method of satellite formation keeping, the fuel consumption of each satellite can be balanced while the total fuel consumption of formation was suboptimal.