The Aerospace Corporation

Chia-Chun Chao

Siegfried W Janson

Victor Shiaw-Jong Lin

James E Pollard

Brian E Kirkpatrick

A control algorithm that determines one or more deviations in an orbit of a companion satellite, and control the companion satellite to minimize effects of perturbing forces.

Deployment and control algorithms for wheel cluster formations of satellites

A deployment algorithm that populate a group of companion satellites around a center satellite, and a control algorithm for maintaining the companion satellites in close formation around the center satellite.

A deployment method maintains a cluster of subsatellites within a rigid formation relative to and orbiting about a real or fictitious center satellite that in turn orbits the earth in a frozen inclined eccentric reference orbit by determining the subsatellite reference orbits of the each of the subsatellites based upon position and velocity vectors of the center satellite. The determined subsatellite reference orbits can then be maintained through fuel efficient microthrusting so as to maintain the rigid formation for coherently combining communication signals within a very large sparse antenna array formed by the cluster having improved beam directionality for improved signal communications.

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Rolling Hills Estates, CA, United States of America

Chia-Chun Chao