Design of Hovering Orbit and Fuel Consumption Analysis for Spacecraft Considering J2 Perturbation

Spacecraft hovering belongs to close range space operations and is mainly applied to on-orbit service of spacecraft. In on-orbit service, the distance between two hovering spacecraft is generally within the range of 0–10 m, whose numerical magnitude is relatively small compared to the orbital radius, so the influence of space perturbation must be considered. In order to improve the accuracy of hovering position, this paper introduces J2 perturbation into the relative dynamics model of the spacecraft and derives high-precision hovering control equations. Furthermore, the influence of eccentricity and semimajor axis on the hovering control is obtained through an example. Then, using the fuel consumption calculation formula, the distribution of the fuel consumption of the hovering spacecraft is given, when the spacecraft is hovering at different positions in a fixed orbital period. Considering the limited carrying capacity of fuel, the fuel consumption at different hovering positions was analyzed for the same hovering distance, and the problem of determining the hovering position was solved to reduce fuel consumption.