Formation Keeping Control of Hybrid Propulsion ThreeSatellite Coulomb Formation in Geostationary Orbit

The control of threesatellite Coulomb hybrid formation in geostationary orbit is studied in this paper. Firstly, the dynamic equation of hybrid propulsion threesatellite coulomb formation in geostationary orbit is established by considering the influence of unknown bounded relative perturbation. Then, the rotation formation configuration of projected circular orbit is designed based on the relative motion analytic solution. Finally, the sliding mode control method is adopted to design the controller and prove its stability. The saturation function is used to improve the controller and eliminate the influence of chattering. The preset formation can be maintained by controlling the internal electrostatic force and supplementary electric thrust. Simulation results show that the hybrid propulsion scheme has fast response speed and high control precision, and meets the control requirements.