Research on Eccentricity and Longitude Control of Geostationary Satellites

The longitude of geostationary satellites is continuously drifting and oscillating under the impact of perturbation forces. This paper researched a periodic East-West Station-Keeping strategy to control the eccentricity and longitude simultaneously. Station-keeping elements is introduced to describe the motion of GEO satellites. The perturbed motion of these elements is analyzed. The ideal motion of drift rate vector is designed based on the minimum-maximum principle. Considering of the effect of solar radiation perturbation, the eccentricity lag sun vector strategy is designed to control the eccentricity vector. Numeric simulation verified the strategy can keep the longitude within predefined range by periodic maneuvers.