Coordinated guidance and control of mini-satellites in constellations for space earth survey

The problems of coordinated guidance and control for mini-satellites in low-orbit earth survey constellations are investigated. The synthesis of the guidance laws is based on explicit relations that link the image motion in the telescope focal plane with the satellite spatial motion relative to the Earth’s surface. The developed algorithms for areal survey, which is performed by constellations of mini-satellites in sun-synchronous orbits, and the results of computer simulation demonstrating their effectiveness, are presented.