Satellites formation reconfiguration with multiple impulses

Satellite formation flying (SFF) reconfiguration using multiple impulses was studied, which was mainly focusing on fuel efficiency. The elliptic reference orbit was considered. First the mathematical description of multiple-burn maneuver was established based on the analytical solution of the Lawden equation. Then object function was constructed as the total fuel which took the form as function of the imposing time and the magnitude of the previous n-2 burns, followed with the problem being solved utilizing the genetic algorithm. Finally the result was transferred into time domain to determine the magnitude, direction and imposing time of each of the impulse vectors. The simulation shows that the algorithm presented could lead to a more efficient method to implement the SFF reconfiguration.