Ricerc@Sapienza

Most of the current formation flying systems are
intended to work in a single, stable orbital configuration
acquired shortly after the launch. However, the formation flying
concept lends itself to be used in a flexible manner, by
introducing the possibility of changing the relative
configuration of the platforms, i.e. to reconfigure the formation.
Instead of maintaining a single relative geometry, the change in
configuration helps to achieve multiple objectives. Several
examples of missions gaining from a reconfiguration capability

The possibility to reconfigure satellite formations with utilization of the drag and the solar radiation pressure has been established with previous works. Passive formation reconfiguration maneuvers may be achieved by controlling the attitude of the satellites and varying the area exposed to the perturbation forces. This paper deals with the development of a simple but effective model to understand the possibilities offered by this kind of maneuvers.