与传统单一卫星相比，编队飞行卫星（Formation Flying Satellites）有巨大的口径或测量基线，具有广泛应用前景。卫星编队飞行技术作为未来卫星任务的一项关键技术受到航天领域的关注。编队任务的实现依赖于编队成员卫星之间的空间构形的保持和控制。恰当的编队轨道和队形设计，能大幅度地减少用于编队队形保持的控制燃料消耗。本文提出了一种便于相对运动分析的相对运动描述方法，即参照轨道要素方法。讨论了该方法在编队设计以及编队队形几何特性分析中的应用。 定义从星相对主星的参照轨道要素（Reference Orbital Elements, ROE），推导其与经典轨道要素的转换关系，利用ROE建立精确的相对运动方程。该方程紧凑简洁，其变量具有明显的几何意义。利用参照轨道要素描述的相对运动方程，分别针对圆参照轨道编队和椭圆参照轨道编队，给出了理想编队轨道分析和队形设计的一般方法；不但能根据编队轨道和队形要求定量求解从星参数，而且得到了多种新的编队轨道。 在地球形状一阶J2项摄动下，相对运动轨道可能发生尺度增大、漂移和变形等三种变化，由这些变化得到抑制摄动变化的充分条件；根据摄动抑制条件满足的情况，将编队轨道解分为三类：自然编队精确解、第一类近似解和第二类近似解；基于自然编队解的编队轨道和队形设计是J2不变的或是某些特征不变的，使编队的低能耗长期保持成为可能。 利用参照轨道要素解析地表达卫星的星间角距和编队覆盖重叠面积，给出了表征星下点球面几何特征的最小凸球面多边形的判定算法。由于算法中的变量数目少，因而便于编队覆盖性能的参数分析和进一步基于覆盖性能优化的编队轨道优化设计。

Compared with the application of a single satellite, the formation flying satellites have large aperture or long baseline and henceforth many new applications. The satellite formation technique has been paid much attention as a key technology for the future satellite missions. The achievement of the formation mission’s objectives depends on the control and maintenance of the formation configuration. Formation flying satellites that move along properly designed formation configuration will remarkably cut the fuel cost to maintain a formation. To facilitate the analysis of relative motion, the present work formulates a new approach to describe the relative motion. The applications of the new approach to the formation design and formation characteristics analysis are discussed. The follower’s reference orbital elements (ROE for abbreviation) are defined with the reference to the leader’s orbital plane. The transform between the classical orbital elements and the ROE is developed. The precise equations of relative motion are formulated in ROE. The form of the equation is compact with the variables having explicit geometric significances. The general method to analyze and design the formation orbit and configuration with circular and elliptic reference orbit is presented by using the equations of relative motion in terms of ROE. The parameters of the followers’ can be determined analytically according to the features of the formation orbit and configuration. Several new formation orbits are obtained. Three kinds of changes may occur in the formation orbit under perturbation of the first-order earth non-spherical J2 . They are scope stretching, drift and distortion. Sufficient conditions to suppress the orbital changes can be formulated according to these changes. The orbital solutions for natural formation orbits are categorized into three kinds, namely the precise solution, first approximate solution and second approximate solution. The three solutions refer to the different conditions for perturbation suppression. The orbits constructed based on the natural formation orbit solution are J2-invariant or at least maintains key characteristics, which enables low-energy maintenance of satellite formation flight in long duration. The angular separation of satellites and the formation coverage area are formulated in terms of ROE analytically. The minimum convex spherical polygon including all formation subpoints is introduced to characterize the geometry feature of subpoints. An algorithm employing less variables to judge the spherical polygon is developed in terms of angular separation. Based on the optimization of the coverage performance, the algorithm is convenient for the parameter analysis of the coverage performance and further design of the formation orbits.