Electric Station Keeping of Geostationary Satellites: a Differential Inclusion Approach

Damiana Losa (1) , Marco Lovera (2) , Rémi Drai (1) , Thierry Dargent (3) , Joël Amalric (3)

1 CMA - Centre de Mathématiques Appliquées
2 Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione
3 Alcatel Alenia Space [Cannes]

The aim of this paper is to consider the modelling and control issues arising in the design of a station keeping system for geostationary satellites based on electric propulsion. In particular, a linear time-varying model for the dynamics of a geostationary satellite affected by perturbations is derived and the longitude and latitude station keeping problem is then formulated as a constrained linear quadratic optimal control problem. A direct method based on the so-called differential inclusion approach is then proposed. Simulation results showing the feasibility of the control task on a spacecraft equipped with electric thrusters are also presented and discussed.

Mots clés: Chemicals; Earth; Gravity; Optimal control; Predictive models; Propulsion; Satellites; Solar radiation; Space vehicles; Vectors

Domaines: Physique [physics]; Physique [physics]; Physique de l'espace [physics.space-ph]; Informatique [cs]; Automatique

Damiana Losa, Marco Lovera, Rémi Drai, Thierry Dargent, Joël Amalric. Electric Station Keeping of Geostationary Satellites: a Differential Inclusion Approach. 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, and the European Control Conference 2005, Dec 2005, Seville, Spain. pp.7484-7489 - ISBN 0-7803-9567-0, ⟨10.1109/CDC.2005.1583369⟩. ⟨hal-00618111⟩