Abstract: Aiming at the problem of high precision configuration maintenance of large LEO constellation, a high precision phase keeping method based on limit cycle is proposed. Firstly, the relationship between the mean phase angle difference and semimajor axis difference between the actual orbit and the reference orbit is derived; secondly, the methodology for obtaining the phase keeping period and the semimajor axis change based on the limit cycle is established; finally, based on the relationship derived above, an implementation method of phase keeping is presented. The numerical simulation considering the Earth’s non spherical perturbation and atmospheric drag shows that the proposed method can achieve high precision phase keeping under the condition of low determination accuracy and long sampling interval for LEO constellation. 

Key words: LEO constellation, Phase keeping, Mean orbit elements, Mean phase angle difference