MAE 525 Spacecraft Dynamics & Control Guidelines. Engineering Essay

Satellite Formation Flying Control via Countercurrent Exchange
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Satellite Formation Flying Control via Countercurrent Exchange
Satellite formation flying refers to the notion of having various satellites working together in a group to attain the goal of one, larger, normally more expensive satellite. Satellites are objects placed in space to gather information and facilitate communication between two or more objects through space (Damjanov, 2017). In this space system, multiple elements fly in short relative distances in an orbit where they communicate, and interact to achieve a common goal. Coordination of these smaller satellites has several benefits such as simpler designs that make it easy to repair, faster build times, cheap to replace, creating a higher redundancy, results into an unexpected high resolution for better image quality, and the ability to observe research targets from different angles and at various times. Besides, the system also allows for concurrency between satellites, and the scalability and flexibility in design and deployment of a system. These features have made satellites suitable tools for astronomy, communication and meteorological purposes. The formations have found extremely useful applications in aerial vehicles, with their applications being associated with improve fuel economy, enhanced efficiency in air traffic control, and facilitation of corporative task allocation. The precise control of formation flight in the case of space vehicles will also enable future large-aperture space telescopes, and the robotic assembly of space structures.
The main characteristic of a satellite formation flying is that it is composed of a small number of satellites that communicate between each other. The system operates under the concept of formation flying, which entails the distribution of the functionality of bigger spacecraft into smaller, less expensive ones to reduce the complications that may face the larger systems. The smaller satellites are organized around a centralized control and are governed by a mother-daughter relationship. Just like in a mother-daughter relationship, where a mother is expected to know what is best for her children and has command over them, the centralized control understands its satellites and controls their motion. The cluster also operates under the leader-follower relationship, in which the leader moves anywhere he or she wants and the followers pursue him. Similarly, the central control system moves anywhere and the satellites have to follow. The motion occurs along predefined trajectories and there is a constant communication between the satellites. There are various forms of trajectories which include the A-train formation, the relative circular orbit, the projected circular orbit, and the docking trajectories, among others. The A-train formation comprises of five satellites that flying in close proximity. Satellites are put in this form to allow scientists obtain a better understanding of the key parameters relevant to hurricanes as well as understand climate change information. This formation also enables simultaneous coordinated measurements where data from different satellites can be used to obtain more comprehensi...