This study designs and analyzes satellite formation flying concepts for the Small scale magNetospheric and Ionospheric Plasma Experiments (SNIPE) mission, that will observe the near-Earth space environment using four nanosats. To meet the requirements to achieve the scientific objectives of the SNIPE mission, three formation flying concepts are analyzed: a crossshape formation, a square-shape formation, and a cross-track formation. Of the three formation flying scenarios, the crosstrack formation scenario is selected as the final scenario for the SNIPE mission. The result of this study suggests a relative orbit control scenario for formation maintenance and reconfiguration, and the initial relative orbits of the four nanosats meeting the formation requirements and thrust limitations of the SNIPE mission. The formation flying scenario is validated by calculating the accumulated total thrust required for the four nanosats. If the cross-track formation scenario presented in this study is applied to the SNIPE mission, it is expected that the mission will be successfully accomplished.

This paper presents relative navigation using intermittent laser-based measurement data for spacecraft flying formation that consist of two spacecrafts; namely, chief and deputy spacecrafts. The measurement data consists of the relative distance measured by a femtosecond laser, and the relative angles between the two spacecrafts. The filtering algorithms used for the relative navigation are the extended Kalman filter (EKF), unscented Kalman filter (UKF), and least squares recursive filter (LSRF). Numerical simulations reveal that the relative navigation performances of the EKF- and UKF-based relative navigation algorithms decrease in accuracy as the measurement outage period increases. However, the relative navigation performance of the UKF-based algorithm is 95 % more accurate than that of the EKF-based algorithm when the measurement outage period is 80 sec. Although the relative navigation performance of the LSRF-based relative navigation algorithm is 94 % and 370 % less accurate than those of the EKF- and UKF-based navigation algorithms, respectively, when the measurement outage period is 5 sec; the navigation error varies within a range of 4 %, even though the measurement outage period is increased. The results of this study can be applied to the design of a relative navigation strategy using the developed algorithms with laser-based measurements for spacecraft formation flying.

This study presents a precise relative navigation algorithm using both laser and Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements in real time. The measurement model of the navigation algorithm between two spacecraft is comprised of relative distances measured by laser instruments and single differences of GPS pseudo-range measurements in spherical coordinates. Based on the measurement model, the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is applied to smooth the pseudo-range measurements and to obtain the relative navigation solution. While the navigation algorithm using only laser measurements might become inaccurate because of the limited accuracy of spacecraft attitude estimation when the distance between spacecraft is rather large, the proposed approach is able to provide an accurate solution even in such cases by employing the smoothed GPS pseudo-range measurements. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the errors of the proposed algorithm are reduced by more than about 12% compared to those of an algorithm using only laser measurements, as the accuracy of angular measurements is greater than 0.001° at relative distances greater than 30 km.

The concept of the satellite formation flight is area where it is actively study with expandability and safety compare to existing satellite. For execution of duty with more safety issue, it needs to consider hot topic of space debris for operation of formation flight. In this paper, it suggests heuristic algorithm to have avoidance maneuver for space debris towards operating flight formation. Indeed it covers, using common software, operating simulation to nearest space environment and not only to have goal of avoidance but also minimizing the usage of fuel and finding optimization for maximizing cycle of formation flight. For improvement on convergence speed of existing heuristic algorithm, it substitute to hybrid heuristic algorithm, PSOGSA, and the result of simulation, it represents the satisfaction of minimum range for successful avoidance maneuver and compare to not using avoidance maneuver, it keeps more than three times of formation maintenance performance. From these, it is meaningful results of showing several success goals like simple avoidance collision and fuel usage and decreasing number of times of maintaining formation maneuver.

The use of generating functions for solving optimal rendezvous problems has an advantage in the sense that it does not require one to guess and iterate the initial costate. This paper presents how to apply generating functions to analyze spacecraft optimal reconfiguration between projected circular orbits. The series-based solution obtained by using generating functions demonstrates excellent convergence and approximation to the nonlinear reference solution obtained from a numerical shooting method. These favorable properties are expected to hold for analyzing optimal formation reconfiguration under perturbations and non-circular reference orbits.

An integrated orbit and attitude control algorithm for satellite formation flying was developed, and an integrated orbit and attitude software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulator was also developed to test and verify the integrated control algorithm. The integrated algorithm includes state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) control algorithm and PD feedback control algorithm as orbit and attitude controller respectively and configures the two algorithms with an integrating effect. The integrated SIL simulator largely comprises an orbit SIL simulator for orbit determination and control, and attitude SIL simulator for attitude determination and control. The two SIL simulators were designed considering the performance and characteristics of related hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulators and were combined into the integrated SIL simulator. To verify the developed integrated SIL simulator with the integrated control algorithm, an orbit simulation and integrated orbit and attitude simulation were performed for a formation reconfiguration scenario using the orbit SIL simulator and the integrated SIL simulator, respectively. Then, the two simulation results were compared and analyzed with each other. As a result, the user satellite in both simulations achieved successful formation reconfiguration, and the results of the integrated simulation were closer to those of actual satellite than the orbit simulation. The integrated orbit and attitude control algorithm verified in this study enables us to perform more realistic orbit control for satellite formation flying. In addition, the integrated orbit and attitude SIL simulator is able to provide the environment of easy test and verification not only for the existing diverse orbit or attitude control algorithms but also for integrated orbit and attitude control algorithms.