Spacecraft formation control for fixed thrust propulsion

Abstract

For spacecraft control, a method iteratively measures a drifting spacecraft trajectory of a spacecraft relative to a bounding box, wherein the spacecraft has a fixed maximum thrust, a minimum thrust duration, a thrust duration that is an integer multiple of the minimum thrust duration, and a fixed update period. In response to the determining the spacecraft does not satisfy a trajectory condition, the method iteratively calculates maneuver controls wherein there are a number of guidance trajectories within the thruster duration. The method maneuvers the spacecraft along the guidance trajectories with the maneuver controls.