A new guidance method using linearized gravitational field

Aiming at correcting various types of perturbation errors induced during the orbital maneuver of a continuous thrust spacecraft, we propose a closed-loop guidance method for linearizing its gravitational field with optimal compensation coefficients. Generally, there are two kinds of perturbation; conservative perturbation and non-conservative perturbation. Sections 1 and 2 of the full paper explain our method mentioned in the title, which we believe is new. Their core consists of; (1) we simplify the conservative perturbation and give its linear expressions; then we linearize the equations of motion of the perturbed spacecraft in its inertial frame and deduce the expressions of closed-loop guidance acceleration, which is the feedback of position errors due to perturbation; (2) we take the non-conservative perturbation, namely atmospheric drag, into consideration and use the genetic algorithm to optimize the compensation coefficient k, thus obtaining the modified closed-loop guidance acceleration expressions. Section 3 gives a numerical example of rendezvous; the simulation results, presented in Figs 2 through 8, and their analysis show preliminarily that the orbit of the tracking spacecraft, which is modified with our new method, can well track the ideal orbit of the target spacecraft with good rendezvous accuracy. Our new guidance method can be used for modifying the perturbation errors during various types of orbital maneuver.