Design and control of relative motion for interferometric and bistatic SAR

Remote sensing is one of the most relevant applications for formation flying missions. Synthetic Aperture Radar interferometric and bistatic techniques allow for a multiple exploitation of the transmitted signal, by means of two or more satellites. This goal can be achieved if the relative trajectory is maintained close to the nominal trajectory within a certain tolerance. In this paper the required formation's dynamics are accurately described and justified, according to the different remote sensing modes. Since orbital perturbations would remove the formation from the optimal state, a control strategy is implemented, based on a modification of the standard linear quadratic regulator. This technique, simulated for both chemical and electrical propulsion systems, shows large ΔV savings with respect to the traditional one.