A Combined Semi-major Axis and Eccentricity Control Strategy for Orbit Maneuver

The target orbit designed for Earth-observation missions is usually parameterized by the semi-major axis and eccentricity. This paper introduces a combined semi-major axis and eccentricity control strategy (CSECS) for orbit maneuvers to guide a satellite to a target orbit with a single fixed thrust along the track direction, i.e., +x axis in the body frame. Due to the constraints of the working time of thrusters, a series of small maneuvers is required to move to the target orbit, rather than only a large one yielded from Lambert transfer. In order to avoid the 180o-in-pitch reorienting, some constraints on the initial orbit are proposed to ensure that the transfer from the initial to the target one can be accomplished via a series of accelerating maneuvers. Then, a practical algorithm to determine the maneuver sequence is developed by several pairs of impulse controls based on the geometry of eccentricity vectors. Furthermore, the CSECS is extended from the impulse to low-thrust thrust case.