Abstract Spacecraft formation flying is defined as a group of more than one satellite which cooperates together in a common space mission while maintaining a specific geometrical formation in space. This will provide the possibility of doing complex space missions using small, rigid and cheap micro and nano satellites with more accuracy in comparison with previous huge, flexible and expensive ones. Despite its advantages, some concerns comes about with new technology of formation flying which are formation maintenance, fuel minimization and equalization, practical limitations for satellites and formation, collision avoidance between spacecrafts during maneuvers, decrease of communication bandwidth, computation reduction and robustness to probable faults in system. In this thesis we first review different dynamical models and control methodologies for formation flying of spacecrafts. Comparing these control methods, we choose distributed model predictive control algorithm as a suitable control strategy and show that it satisfies all properties of a desirable formation flying controller. Also to prevent satellites form collision between two successive sample times during a maneuver, we propose a new method to overcome the problem. Finally the proposed control algorithm is validated through simulations on a network structure and the results show the effectiveness of the method. Keywords: spacecraft formation flying, model predictive control, distributed control, collision avoidance, fuel equalization | 
