The Impact on Absolute Along-Track Station-Keeping of Coordinate Additional Perturbation

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of the current paper is to investigate how the coordinated additional perturbation influences the along-track station-keeping. The absolute along-track station-keeping method has been developed and can achieve high-precision maintenance when the orbits are near-pole in previous studies. The accuracy of station-keeping deteriorates when the orbits are not near-pole. The reason is that the additional perturbation of the Mean Equator Mean Equinox of the J2000.0 (J2000) coordinate system makes a great difference in the absolute station-keeping between different inclinations, which has not been studied before. First, the impact factor model is constructed to measure the influence of the coordinate additional perturbation. Second, the impact factors of different orbits are analyzed and it is found the impact factor increases gradually with the decrease of inclination. Third, how impact factor indicating the accuracy of station-keeping is investigated and coordinate systems are recommended based on the impact factors. Finally, the numerical simulations of station-keeping in the J2000 coordinate system and True Equator Mean Equinox (TEME) coordinate system are carried out. Results show that the TEME coordinate system is more advantageous in the station-keeping mission than J2000 when the orbits are not near-pole.