Longitude-drift phase plane control with continuous or quasi-continuous maneuvers

Abstract

A satellite longitude and drift control method is provided that includes providing a satellite that has a continuously or a quasi-continuously firing thruster, where the thruster is disposed to apply accelerations which counter a tri-axiality displacement in an orbit of the satellite, and the satellite thruster is disposed to achieve optimal ΔV performance in the presence of orbit determination and orbit propagation errors. The method further includes targeting an optimal two-phase continuous acceleration target cycle using the continuously or the quasi-continuously firing thruster, providing a closed loop and a hybrid loop implementation of the thruster firing, where the hybrid loop implementation includes an open and closed loop implementation, and where the closed loop and the hybrid loop implementations are disposed to provide quasi-continuous implementations of an optimal continuous control program.