naa a22 4500 510774377 CHVBK 20180411083225.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20130601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s40295-015-0040-6 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s40295-015-0040-6 Formation Pattern Analysis of Follower Spacecraft for Elliptic Reference Orbits [Elektronische Daten] [Jonghee Bae, Youdan Kim] Formation analysis is performed for the periodic relative motion between two spacecraft in Keplerian elliptic orbits. For a leader spacecraft moving in a circular orbit around the Earth, the relative motion of a follower spacecraft has an ellipse in the radial/along-track plane. On the other hand, when a leader spacecraft flies in an elliptical orbit, the follower spacecraft does not have an ellipse of fixed eccentricity in the relative motion plane due to the eccentricity of the reference orbit. In this study, the spacecraft formation flying is analyzed to describe the natural periodic relative motion. The instantaneous eccentricity of the relative motion is derived in the radial/along-track (R/AT) plane (x−y plane) formation and the along-track/cross-track (AT/CT) plane (y−z plane) formation. Numerical simulations are performed to yield the periodic relative motion and the formation trajectories in the elliptical reference orbit. The variation of the formation radius according to the eccentricity of the reference orbit is analyzed for R/AT plane and AT/CT plane formations. In addition, the range of the angle difference between two follower spacecraft is described with respect to the eccentricity of the leader spacecraft. Using these results, the desired constraints can be provided for a designer to choose the formation pattern in accordance with the mission requirements. American Astronautical Society, 2015 Spacecraft formation flying nationallicence Formation pattern nationallicence Relative motion dynamics nationallicence Periodic relative motion nationallicence Keplerian elliptic orbit nationallicence Bae Jonghee Convergence Technology Research Head Office, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Daejeon, South Korea aut Kim Youdan School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea aut The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 60/2(2013-06-01), 167-185 0021-9142 60:2<167 2013 60 40295 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40295-015-0040-6 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40295-015-0040-6 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Bae Jonghee Convergence Technology Research Head Office, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Daejeon, South Korea aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kim Youdan School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 60/2(2013-06-01), 167-185 0021-9142 60:2<167 2013 60 40295 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer