ELECTROMAGNETIC FORMATION FLIGHT FOR LEO SATELLITES
Shin-ichiro Sakai1, Ryosuke Kaneda2, Hirobumi Saito1, and Tatsuaki Hashimoto1
1ISAS, JAXA, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, 229-8510, Japan
2University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, 113-8656, Japan
ABSTRACT
Electromagnetic formation flight (EMFF) for satellites in
LEO is discussed. EMFF is a technique to control the
satellitesf relative position using electromagnetic force
without any propellants. It is estimated that the superconductive
magnets have capability to produce required magnetic
force for formation keeping. The problem to use
EMFF in LEO is the huge amount of disturbance torque,
caused by enormous magnetic moment and earth magnetic
field. Sinusoidal driving of the superconductive coil
is proposed for this issue, and novel method is also proposed
for magnetic force control using phase difference
between the magnetic moments. Proposed methods are
evaluated with experiments with actual superconductive
coil, and hardware in the loop simulations is also carried
out to demonstrate the relative position control capability
of proposed system.
Key words: Electromagnetic formation flight(EMFF),
LEO, Phase difference control, superconductive magnet.