Distributed Coordinated Control for E-Sail Formation Flying Around Heliocentric Displaced Orbit

This paper analyzes a cooperative control framework for Electric Solar Wind Sail formation flying around a heliocentric displaced orbit, aiming at observing the polar region of a celestial body. The chief spacecraft covers an elliptic displaced orbit, while each deputy spacecraft adjusts its thrust vector in order to track a prescribed relative trajectory. The distributed coordinated control law is designed in such a way that each deputy not only tracks the chief state, but also makes full use of information from its neighbours, thus increasing the redundancy and robustness of the formation structure in case of failure between the communication links.