Method for orbit control and desaturation of a satellite by means of a single articulated arm carrying a propulsion unit

A method for orbit control of a satellite in Earth orbit and for desaturation of an angular momentum storage device of said satellite, said satellite comprising:

• an articulated arm having at least three degrees of freedom,
• said articulated arm comprising a first end connected to a body of the satellite and a second end carrying a propulsion unit,
• said articulated arm being configured to move said second end within a motion volume included in a half-space delimited by an orbital plane of the satellite when said satellite is in a mission attitude,
• said method comprises:
• a single-arm control mode using only the propulsion unit carried by the articulated arm to control the Earth orbit of the satellite and to desaturate the storage device, said single-arm control mode using a maneuvering plan comprising only thrust maneuvers to be executed when the satellite is located within an angular range of at most 180° centered on a predetermined node among the ascending node and the descending node of the orbit of the satellite, referred to as the target node,
• said maneuvering plan comprising at least one upstream thrust maneuver to be executed upstream of said target node and one downstream thrust maneuver to be executed downstream of said target node,
• the upstream thrust maneuver being executed at least in part when the satellite is located within an angular range of between 40° and 60° upstream of the target node, and
• the downstream thrust maneuver being executed at least in part when the satellite is located within an angular range of between 40° and 60° downstream of the target node.