AAS 95-341

East-West Stationkeeping of Satellite Orbits with Resonant Tesseral Harmonics

T. A. Ely and K. C. Howell, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Abstract

Earth satellite missions that have eccentric and inclined orbits with near-repeating ground tracks can exhibit large amplitude, chaotic motions. In particular, semi-major axis excursions are many times larger inside tesseral resonance overlap regions than outside. It has been suggested that longitudinal orbit control costs are nonlinearly related to the semi-major axis variations. Hence, these large amplitude variations may impact the satellite's orbit control process. This study addresses the mean longitude control of satellites in both regular and chaotic orbits with the goal of obtaining quantitative cost comparisons. Additionally, effectiveness of current controllers is examined to determine if modifications would be beneficial.