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Astrodynamics

, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp 71–83 | Cite as

Safe rendezvous scenario design for geostationary satellites with collocation constraints

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Abstract

Rendezvous on the geostationary orbit (GEO) is much more complex than that on the low earth orbit and has a higher critical requirement for safety performance. This paper presents a safe scenario design method for GEO rendezvous proximity missions where the safety constraint of a collocated satellite is considered. A recently proposed quantitative index considering trajectory uncertainty is introduced to analyze the safety performance of the scenario parameters including the V-bar keeping positions and the fly-by trajectory radius. Furthermore, an exhaustive analysis is performed to find the dangerous regions of the V-bar keeping positions and the appropriate semi-major axis of the fly-by ellipse, considering the safety requirements of both the target and the collocated satellite. A geometry method is then developed for designing a feasible and suboptimal safe rendezvous scenario. The method is tested by designing four rendezvous scenarios with ±V-bar approach directions respectively in the situations with and without one collocated satellite. Safety performance and velocity increments of the scenarios are compared and a conclusion is reached that the collocated satellite has a significant influence on the scenario design.

Keywords

geostationary orbit (GEO) rendezvous and docking (RVD) safety performance satellite collocation 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11572345 and 11402257) and the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, Grant No. 2013CB733100).

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Copyright information

© Tsinghua University Press 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.College of Aerospace Science and EngineeringNational University of Defense TechnologyChangshaChina

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