Station keeping of geostationary satellites with on-off electric thrusters

The aim of this paper is to consider the modelling and control issues arising in the design of a station keeping system for geostationary satellites based on on-off electric thrusters. In particular, a model for the dynamics of a geostationary satellite affected by perturbations is derived and the electric station keeping problem is then formulated as an optimisation problem with mixed (continuous and discrete) constraints. Simulation results showing the feasibility of the control task on a spacecraft equipped with electric thrusters are also presented and discussed.