Orbital Dynamics and Guidance

Abstract

The satellite orbital state must be transferred from the injection orbit to the operational one with a minimum consumption of propellant. In order to define the guidance law to be implemented the optimal control theory must be applied to the orbital equations. After this phase, the satellite must be maintained in the operational orbit with a certain accuracy and an acceptable expenditure of propellant. An analysis of the perturbations of the nominal orbit is necessary to this scope. In this chapter, we review all these subjects and then we illustrate the optimal control theory applied to the orbital transfer for the two propulsion models of infinite thrust and finite thrust showing the relations between the two methods and various applications.