Areostationary Mars Orbit: Dynamics, Control, and Applications

Mars is Earth’s closest habitable neighbor and one of the most explored bodies in our solar system. In the scope of on-going and future Mars missions, it seems relevant to send a satellite orbiting in Areostationary Mars Orbit (AMO). AMO is 17032 km above the equatorial surface of Mars and remains fixed at a specified longitude, which ensures that the satellite appears stationary in the sky when viewed from the Martian surface, thereby enabling several relevant applications. However, natural perturbations in the Martian environment cause an AMO spacecraft’s longitude and latitude to drift from its desired location. Therefore, there is a need for an active control system for orbital station-keeping (SK) to compensate for these perturbations. This paper is a comprehensive literature review about areostationary satellites, covering potential applications, orbital dynamics, and station-keeping strategy. This literature review synthesizes existing research on AMO and offers valuable insights into the challenges and solutions for designing propellant-efficient station-keeping strategies and enabling real applications. An appealing strategy is exploiting equilibrium longitudes in AMO combined with a model predictive control approach, which significantly reduces the delta-V required for station-keeping and extends the AMO satellite’s lifetime.