Method of SLAS's ground track manipulation based on tangential impulse thrust

Abstract

Satellites with altitudes below 400 km are called super low altitude satellites (SLAS), often used to achieve responsive imaging tasks. Therefore, it is important for the manipulation of its ground track. Aiming at the problem of ground track manipulation of SLAS, a control method based on tangential impulse thrust is proposed. First, the equation of the longitude difference between SLAS and the target point on the target latitude is derived based on Gauss's variational equations. On this basis, the influence of the tangential impulse thrust on the ground track's longitude is derived. Finally, the method for ground track manipulation of SLAS under the tangential impulse thrust is proposed. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the method, after manipulation, the satellite can visit the target point and revisit it for multiple days.