Geometrical Analysis of Station-Keeping Strategies About Libration Point Orbits
Ariadna Farrés, Chen Gao, Josep J. Masdemont, Gérard Gómez, David Folta, Cassandra Webster
Abstract
Throughout the years, different strategies have been proposed for the station-keeping around the libration point orbits. In this paper, a geometrical comparative analysis is performed between different approaches making use of the Floquet modes reference frame. Two particular station-keeping procedures are considered: the commonly used velocity constraint at the plane crossing, and the Floquet mode approach. The first method finds the that ensures that the component of the velocity vector is zero at a plane crossing, whereas the Floquet mode approach finds the that cancels the unstable mode in the Floquet reference frame. It will be seen that both approaches have some basic common geometrical features, even when they are compared using high-order techniques.