Study on relative orbital configuration in satellite formation flying

In this paper,the relative orbital configurationsof satellites in formation flying with non-perturbation andJ;perturbation are studied,and an orbital elements methodis proposed to obtain the relative orbital configurations ofsatellites in formation.Firstly,under the condition of non-perturbation,we obtain many shapes of relative orbital con-figurations when the semi-major axes of satellites are equal.These shapes can be lines,ellipses or distorted closed curves.Secondly,on the basis of the analysis of J;effect on relativeorbital configurations,we find out that J;effect can inducetwo kinds of changes of relative orbital configurations.Theyare distortion and drifting,respectively.In addition,when J;perturbation is concerned,we also find that the semi-majoraxes of the leading and following satellites should not bethe same exactly in order to decrease the J;effect.The rela-tionship of relative orbital elements and J;effect is obtainedthrough simulations.Finally,the minimum relation perturba-tion conditions are established in order to reduce the influenceof the J;effect.The results show that the minimum relationperturbation conditions can reduce the J;effect significantlywhen the orbital element differences are small enough,andthey can become rules for the design of satellite formationflying.