Optimal Co-location of Geo-satellites in the Orbital Slot of 120 Degrees East Using Differential Game Theory

Document Type : selected article

Authors
1 Aerospace group, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies (FNST), University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 University of Tehran
3 Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Due to the increasing demand for locating satellites in the geostationary orbit and considering the operational limitations in defining the geo-orbital slots, the use of a same location by several satellites is one of the solutions to increase the capacity of using this orbit, which is known as co-location. As the number of geostationary satellites increases, there is great interest in new co-location strategies that increase the degree of satellite automation, primarily because they: 1) increase the number of geosatellites in a slot; 2) Desire to reduce fuel consumption. In this article, the optimal initial position of the satellites is calculated with the aim of minimum relative distance of the satellites and taking into account the co-location requirements and the frequency band used in the inter-satellite link using the particle swarm optimization method. Also, in order to minimize the amount of fuel consumed, the differential game theory optimization method is used to plan satellites' station-keeping maneuvers as an intelligent navigation strategy. According to the proposed method, 20 satellites can be located in the orbital slot of 120 degrees East, which is one of the unstable points of the orbit, so that they do not have any interference and the average velocity increase required for one year is about 70 meters per second.
Keywords
Subjects

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Volume 5, Issue 1 - Serial Number 9
September 2025
Pages 42-52

  • Receive Date 28 June 2024
  • Revise Date 24 October 2024
  • Accept Date 05 February 2025