Spacecraft Formation Flying

Spacecraft formation flying (SFF) is of huge importance to the aerospace and space community. Not the stuff of science-fiction, SFF involves flying multiple small satellites together, to deliver benefits which far outweigh a single larger craft or space station. The first autonomous formation flying earth science mission was in 196 and NASA now has 35 SFF mission sets. By networking several smaller and cheaper craft, scientists can make simultaneous measurements that enable higher resolution astronomical imagery, provide robust and fault-tolerant spacecraft system architectures, and enable complex earth science and space science networks dispersed over clusters of satellites in space. This is the first book to introduce and explore SFF. It is a topic of enormous importance to aerospace engineers, astrodynamicists, satellite engineers, astronomers, physicists, and applied mathematicions. This book provides a complete introduction to the subject and is supported by graduate level student exercises plus Matlab and Maple code sets for running SFF simulations.

Zusammenfassung Provides a discussion of spacecraft relative motion, both in the unperturbed and perturbed settings. This title explains the main control approaches for regulating relative satellite dynamics, using both impulsive and continuous maneuvers, and present the main constituents required for relative navigation.

Inhalt
COORDINATE SYSTEMS AND ORBITAL MECHANICS
NONLINEAR MODELS OF RELATIVE DYNAMICS
LINEAR EQUATIONS OF RELATIVE MOTION
MODELLING RELATIVE MOTION USING ORBITAL ELEMENTS
PERTURBATION MITIGATION
SPACECRAFT FORMATION CONTROL
MEASUREMENT AND NAVIGATION
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, FUTUTRE PROSPECTS