A new and better trajectory planning method for satellite formation with collision avoidance considered

A new trajectory planning method for satellite formation is proposed with collision avoidance considered. Sections 1 and 2 of the full paper explain our new method, which we believe is better than existing ones and whose core consists of; "First, based on the multi-impulse linear programming method, the maneuver sequences are obtained for the satellite formation, with the shortest distance between satellites predicted during orbit maneuvers. If the shortest distance is smaller than the safe distance, a new trajectory planning is reprogrammed. The process is iterated untill the trajectory planning satisfies the collision avoidance constraints. " Simulation results, presented in Figs. 2 through 4, and their analysis manifest preliminarily that the computational complexity of this method is small and the trajectory planning of the satellite formation can be programmed rapidly; besides, our analysis shows that the fuel cost of the orbit maneuver is lower.