Confinement of spacecraft swarms in J2-perturbed orbits about the earth

Abstract

There have been studies of the reliability of a swarm [3], based on nano-satellites, that give a study for the num- ber of satellites that can be working as a period of time, with good results for a 5-10 anys time step. The strategies to control the swarm are based in three main concepts. The first one studies the global movement of the swarm as the ones that we can find in nature [5], where each of the spacecraft has behavior depending on the position and velocity of closest neighbors. The sec- ond one are the strategies that include the provision of collision-free orbits for long periods of time[1]. Finally , there is the strategy to keep the relative distance between spacecraft [2]. The main contribution of this paper is the adapta- tion of a methodology proposed for reconfigurations of spacecraft [6] to swarms, taking into account that the higher complexity of the problem needs some adjuste- ments. These adjustements are based on the strategies of swarms in nature (there are only reconfigurations based on the neighbour states). The statement of the problem is to calculate the cost to maintain the spacecraft of the swarm for a year in a sphere of radius R for a year, avoid- ing collisions and minimizing the fuel usage