Abstract
In this paper, we describe possible natural formations for satellites in low Earth orbit that exploit the Earth’s oblateness. These formations are based upon an analytic model of natural formations for satellites in nearly circular orbits, which has already been published, and explores the range of formations available. We describe how we parameterize the formations and then derive from this parameterization the orbital elements needed for each satellite orbit and then show the long-term evolution of these orbits to show the slow evolution of the formation geometry over time.Wedemonstrate that the formations maintain their projected shape in the sky without control over a day, in the presence of gravitational perturbations. This shows that the control requirements for long-term maintenance of such formations can be reduced considerably for long-term maintenance.