Abstract: Focusing on the relative attitude pointing control demand for highly eccentric orbit spacecraft during the period of rendezvous with a HEO target， a kind of agile and highprecision visual tracking attitude control method is proposed, which combines thruster and angular momentum actuators. Firstly， an actuator configuration is designed according to the relative attitude control process. Based on the satellite attitude dynamic models using thruster and angular momentum exchange device as actuators, the visual kinematics equation is derived via relative quaternion method. Secondly, a phase plane jetting control law is designed taking into account the demands for agile attitude maneuver in the rapid approaching phase of rendezvous, a robust sliding mode control law is designed as well, according to the demands for high precision and high stability visual tracking in the final rendezvous phase. Finally, a simulation example is deployed, and the result shows that the precision of visual tracking control within 100 km rapid rendezvous phase reaches 0.005 3°, which validates the effectiveness of the whole control algorithm.

Key words: highly eccentric orbit, visual tracking, robust sliding mode control