Optimal Control for Deployment of Charged Spacecraft Formation Flying Based LQR

Abstract

The properties of coulomb force (CF) that nearly propellantless and exhaust plume contaminatless compared to the conventional chemical liquid propulsion thrusters (e.g., micro PPT, FEEP…etc.), make it attractive use for the close formation flying of the spacecraft at high Earth orbit (HEO). This paper presents the charged feedback controller using the optimal control based on the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) method. The interaction between the CF that generated from charged sphere devices on the Target and Chase crafts are exploited to deploy the Chaser from the Target. Finally, the simulation results showed the effectiveness coulomb feedback-based LQR controller can be efforted the initial position of the Chaser entry to the design orbit as expected. The command force expenditure is on the order of -9 to 48 milli-Newton, in which the magnitude of coulomb charged has bounded.