Research About On-orbit Releasing Of Small Satellites

This paper discusses the problems correlative with small satellites'on-orbit releasing. First mainly designed is safe releasing velocity. Then the paper simply discusses relative navigation and proposes a project for small satellite to form specific relative formation through on-orbit releasing.Firstly, the safe releasing velocity is researched by numerical method through calculating the orbits of small satellite and spaceship independently. The main factors to determine the velocity are analyzed, and the error's affect such as the atmospheric model error on the releasing velocity are given. Many perturbations are considered in the numerical method.Secondly, an analytical solution for the safe releasing velocity is presented based on the Hill equation. The analytical method can be used in any cases, and its precision compared with the numerical is given. The error's specific affect on the releasing velocity can be easily analyzed through the analytical method.Thirdly, a design for the releasing velocity and the constant force maneuver project is given. The small satellites can form the specific relative flying formation around the spaceship with the velocity and force designed. The validity of the project has been proved by numerical methods.Finally, the relative navigation based on the microwave radar is simply discussed. The results of relative navigation applied with several filter arithmetic (KF, EKF and AEKF) are given.Results of this paper may supply theory of on-orbit releasing velocity design, and also provide supports and references for small satellites formation flying.