Steady-state hierarchical control for the drift correction of a constellation in highly elliptical orbits

Abstract

The hierarchical control scheme is used to obtain the solutions of two-point boundary value problems to correct the separation distance drifts of a pair of satellites within a constellation in highly elliptical orbits according to mission constraints. One of these solutions is the drift correction that shows a faster correction than the solution of the two-point boundary value problem for the station-keeping process of a pair of satellites within a constellation. For the drift correction, the hierarchical control scheme uses an iterative method to obtain the solution for the drift correction. Thus, the hierarchical control scheme is re-expressed as a steady-state system to reduce the computational process and time. In summary, the steady-state hierarchical control scheme is used to correct the drift between a pair of satellites within a constellation in which the computational process is minimized.