Optimal On–Off Cooperative Maneuvers for Long-Term Satellite Cluster Flight

When a group of satellites is equipped with a particularly simple propulsion system (e.g., cold-gas thrusters), constraints on the thrust level and total propellant mass renders cluster keeping extremely challenging. This is even more pronounced in disaggregated space architectures, in which a satellite is formed by clustering a number of heterogonous free-flying modules. The research described in this paper develops guidance laws aimed at keeping the relative distances between the cluster modules bounded for long mission lifetimes, typically more than a year, while using constant-magnitude low thrust, with a characteristic on–off profile. A cooperative guidance law capable of cluster establishment and maintenance under realistic environmental perturbations is developed. The guidance law is optimized for fuel consumption, subject to relative distance constraints. Some of the solutions found to the optimal guidance problem require only a single maneuver arc to keep the cluster within relatively close distances for an entire year.