Study on design method of low-thrust phasing maneuvers for earth circle-orbit satellites

Low-thrust phasing maneuver design of Earth circle-orbit satellites is researched in this paper. A semi-analytical phasing parameter analysis method is proposed, and based on that an efficiently accurate design method is developed. First, according to the influence law of thrust direction on phase change rate, functional relationship between phasing parameters are derived by using orbit averaging technique and thrust direction assumption. The key phasing parameters can be obtained by using simple differential correction. Then, the fuel-optimal phasing orbit design under the condition of complex constraints based on a perturbation model is transformed into a multi-parameter optimization problem by discretizing control law. With the initial guess obtained by the analysis method, the problem can be solved rapidly by using a sequential quadratic programming algorithm. Finally, the simulation results of Geosynchronous orbit low-thrust phasing transfer is presented, it is shown that feasible initial guess can be provided with the analytical method for phasing orbit design, and by using the robust design method, low-thrust phasing trajectory design problem can be solved effectively under the perturbation model.