Mars Constellation Design and Low-Thrust Deployment Using Nonlinear Orbit Control

This research addresses the design of a Mars constellation composed of 12 satellites and devoted to telecommunications. While 3 satellites travel areostationary orbits, the remaining 9 satellites are placed in three distinct quasi-synchronous, inclined, circular orbits. The constellation at hand provides continuous global coverage, over the entire Martian surface. The use of 4 carrier vehicles, departing from a 4-sol orbit, is proposed as an affordable option for the purpose of deploying the entire constellation, even starting from dispersed initial conditions. Each carrier is driven toward the respective operational orbit using steerable and throttleable low-thrust propulsion, in conjunction with nonlinear orbit control. Lyapunov stability analysis leads to defining a feedback law that enjoys quasi-global stability properties. Orbit phasing concludes the constellation deployment, and is carried out by each satellite. The tradeoff between phasing time and propellant expenditure is characterized.