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Relative Motion of Satellites, Numerical Simulation

This example shows how to use the state vectors of spacecraft A and B to find the position, velocity and acceleration of B relative to A in the LVLH frame attached to A. We numerically solve fundamental equation of relative two-body motion to obtain the trajectory of spacecraft B relative to spacecraft A and the distance between two satellites. For more details about the theory and algorithm look at Chapter 7 of H. D. Curtis, Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students,Second Edition, Elsevier 2010

clc;
clear all;
% Initial State vectors of Satellite A and B
RA0 = [-266.77,  3865.8, 5426.2];     % [km]
VA0 = [-6.4836, -3.6198, 2.4156];     % [km/s]
RB0 = [-5890.7, -2979.8, 1792.2];     % [km]
VB0 = [0.93583, -5.2403, -5.5009];    % [km/s]
mu  = 398600;            % Earth’s gravitational parameter [km^3/s^2]
t   = 0;                 % initial time
dt  = 15;                % Simulation time step [s]
dT  = 4*24*3600;         % Simulation interval  [s]
% Using fourth-order Runge–Kutta method to solve fundamental equation
% of relative two-body motion
F_r = @(R) -mu/(norm(R)^3)*R;
VA = VA0; RA  = RA0;
VB = VB0; RB  = RB0;
ind = 1;
while (t <= dT)
    % Relative position
    hA = cross(RA, VA);     % Angular momentum of A
    % Unit vectors i, j,k of the co-moving frame
    i = RA/norm(RA);  k = hA/norm(hA); j = cross(k,i);
    % Transformation matrix Qxx:
    QXx   = [i; j; k];
    Om    = hA/norm(RA)^2;
    Om_dt = -2*VA*RA'/norm(RA)^2.*Om;
    % Accelerations of A and B,inertial frame
    aA = -mu*RA/norm(RA)^3;
    aB = -mu*RB/norm(RB)^3;
    % Relative position,inertial frame
    Rr = RB - RA;
    % Relative position,LVLH frame attached to A
    R_BA(ind,:) = QXx*Rr';

    % A Satellite
    k_1 = dt*F_r(RA);  k_2 = dt*F_r(RA+0.5*k_1);
    k_3 = dt*F_r(RA+0.5*k_2);  k_4 = dt*F_r(RA+k_3);
    VA  = VA + (1/6)*(k_1+2*k_2+2*k_3+k_4);
    RA  = RA + VA*dt;
    % B Satellite
    k_1 = dt*F_r(RB);  k_2 = dt*F_r(RB+0.5*k_1);
    k_3 = dt*F_r(RB+0.5*k_2);     k_4 = dt*F_r(RB+k_3);
    VB = VB + (1/6)*(k_1+2*k_2+2*k_3+k_4);
    RB  = RB + VB*dt;

    R_A(ind,:)  = RA;
    R_B(ind,:)  = RB;
    time(ind)   = t;
    t   = t+dt;
    ind = ind+1;
end
r_BA = (R_BA(:,1).^2+R_BA(:,2).^2+R_BA(:,3).^2).^0.5;
close all;
figure(1);
hold on;
plot3(R_A(:,1),R_A(:,2),R_A(:,3),'r');
plot3(R_B(:,1),R_B(:,2),R_B(:,3),'y');
title('Satellites orbits around earth');
legend('Satellite A','Satellites B');
xlabel('km');ylabel('km');
% Plotting Earth
load('topo.mat','topo','topomap1');
colormap(topomap1);
% Create the surface.
radius_earth=6378;
[x,y,z] = sphere(50);
x =radius_earth*x;
y =radius_earth*y;
z =radius_earth*z;
props.AmbientStrength = 0.1;
props.DiffuseStrength = 1;
props.SpecularColorReflectance = .5;
props.SpecularExponent = 20;
props.SpecularStrength = 1;
props.FaceColor= 'texture';
props.EdgeColor = 'none';
props.FaceLighting = 'phong';
props.Cdata = topo;
surface(x,y,z,props);
hold off;

figure(2);
plot3(R_BA(:,1),R_BA(:,2),R_BA(:,3),'k');
title('The trajectory of spacecraft B relative to spacecraft A');
xlabel('km');ylabel('km');zlabel('km');

figure(3);
plot(time/3600,r_BA);
title('Distance between two satellites');
xlabel('hour');ylabel('km')

min_r = min(r_BA);
max_r = max(r_BA);
fprintf('Max distance between two satellites %6.4f km \n',max_r);
fprintf('Min distance between two satellites %6.4f km \n',min_r);
Max distance between two satellites 13850.3054 km 
Min distance between two satellites 262.0271 km

Relative_motion_sim_01 Relative_motion_sim_02 Relative_motion_sim_03

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3 Comments

  1. njee01 says:

    Reblogged this on ASTROPHYSICS and commented:
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  2. Arttu Tiainen says:

    This just saved my day! Author, can I send you chocolates or something?

    • smallsat says:

      Thank you very much for a good feedback ! It is always nice to hear that your effort helped someone.
      You welcome to donate if you feel so or just spread a word about us. Good luck in you work or studies !

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