Closed-Loop Control Law for Low Thrust Orbit Transfer with Guaranteed Stability

Abstract

Electric propulsion is used to maximize payload capacity in communication satellites. These orbit raising maneuvers span several months and hundreds of revolutions, making trajectory design a complex challenge. The literature typically addresses this problem using feedback laws, with Q-law being one of the most prominent approaches. However, Q-law suffers from closed-loop stability issues, limiting its suitability for real-time on-board implementation. In this work, we focus on closed-loop orbit raising rather than offline trajectory planning and address the stability limitations of the Q-law through a Lyapunov based control design. A Lyapunov-guided modification of the classical Q-law is proposed to ensure closed-loop stability and enable real-time implementation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through closed-loop orbit transfers across various scenarios, including co-planar transfers, equatorial to polar orbit transfers, and geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to geostationary earth orbit (GEO) transfers.