Development of a Guidance, Navigation and Control Architecture and Validation Process Enabling Autonomous Docking to a Tumbling Satellite

Download or read book Development of a Guidance, Navigation and Control Architecture and Validation Process Enabling Autonomous Docking to a Tumbling Satellite written by Simon Nolet and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Cont.) The algorithms were implemented in GN & C software modules for real-time experimentation using the Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellite (SPHERES) facility that was created by the MIT Space Systems Laboratory. Operated inside the International Space Station (ISS), SPHERES allow the incremental maturation of formation flight and autonomous docking algorithms in a risk-tolerant, microgravity environment. Multiple autonomous docking operations have been performed in the ISS to validate the GN & C architecture. These experiments led to the first autonomous docking with a tumbling target ever achieved in microgravity. Furthermore, the author also demonstrated successful docking in spite of the presence of measurement errors that were detected and rejected by an online fault detection algorithm. The results of these experiments will be discussed in this thesis. Finally, based on experiments in a laboratory environment, the author establishes two processes for the verification of GN & C software prior to on-orbit testing on the SPHERES testbed.