Optimal Control of Deployment of a Tethered Subsatellite

One of the most important operations during a tethered satellite system mission is the deployment of a subsatellite from a space ship. We restrict tothe simple but practically important case that the system ismoving on a circular orbit around the Earth. The main problem duringdeployment due to gravity gradient is that the two satellites do not move along the straight radial relative equilibrium position which is stable for a tether of constant length. Instead, deploymentleads to an unstable motion with respect to the radial relativeequilibrium configuration. Therefore we introduce an optimal control strategy using theMaximum Principle to achieve a force controlled deployment of the tethered subsatellite from the radial relative equilibrium position close to the space ship to the radial relative equilibrium position far away from the space ship.