The animation shows a novel technique that was implemented in order to place the two satellites of the ADONIS mission into orbital planes with 90 degrees RAAN angular separation between them. When designing the orbits, we took advantage of the earth's oblateness (J2 effect) and initially placed the satellites in orbits with slightly different eccetricities, leading to different rates of precession of the ascending nodes. After the desired relative angular spacing was achieved, the on-board propulsion system was used in order to bring the two satellites into orbits with the same eccentricity and semi-major axis, thereby leading to a constant offset in their orbital planes for the remainder of the mission. This novel idea led to significant reduction of launch costs, while still ensuring that the scientific objectives in terms of earth coverage were fulfilled.
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