System test results from the GNC experiments on the PRISMA in-orbit test bed

The PRISMA in-orbit test bed will demonstrate guidance, navigation, and control strategies for spacecraft formation flying and rendezvous. The project is funded by the Swedish National Space Board and the prime contractor is the Swedish Space Corporation. The project is further supported by the German Aerospace Center, the Technical University of Denmark, and the French Space Agency. PRISMA was launched on June 15, 2010 and after three weeks of operations, all on-board systems and units have passed an initial commissioning phase. Separation of the two PRISMA satellites from each other is expected by mid-August 2010.PRISMA consists of two spacecraft: MAIN and TARGET. The MAIN spacecraft has full orbit control capability while TARGET is attitude controlled only.The Swedish Space Corporation is responsible for three groups of guidance, navigation, and control experiments. These experiments include GPS- and vision-based formation flying during which the spacecraft will fly in passive as well as forced motion. The three experiments are: autonomous formation flying, proximity operations with final approach/recede maneuvers, and autonomous rendezvous. This paper presents system test results from two of these experiments as obtained with the flight-ready system. The system tests consist of a series of simulations performed on the flight model spacecraft with a large amount of hardware in the loop.     

Flight demonstration of new thruster and green propellant technology on the PRISMA satellite

The concept of a storable liquid monopropellant blend for space applications based on ammonium dinitramide (ADN) was invented in 1997, within a co-operation between the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI). The objective was to develop a propellant which has higher performance and is safer than hydrazine. The work has been performed under contract from the Swedish National Space Board and ESA. The progress of the development has been presented in several papers since 2000.ECAPS, a subsidiary of the Swedish Space Corporation was established in 2000 with the aim to develop and market the novel “high performance green propellant” (HPGP) technology for space applications. The new technology is based on several innovations and patents w.r.t. propellant formulation and thruster design, including a high temperature resistant catalyst and thrust chamber.The first flight demonstration of the HPGP propulsion system will be performed on PRISMA. PRISMA is an international technology demonstration program with Swedish Space Corporation as the Prime Contractor.This paper describes the performance, characteristics, design and verification of the HPGP propulsion system for PRISMA. Compatibility issues related to using a new propellant with COTS components is also discussed. The PRISMA mission includes two satellites in LEO orbit were the focus is on rendezvous and formation flying. One of the satellites will act as a “target” and the main spacecraft performs rendezvous and formation flying maneuvers, where the ECAPS HPGP propulsion system will provide delta-V capability.The PRISMA CDR was held in January 2007. Integration of the flight propulsion system is about to be finalized.The flight opportunity on PRISMA represents a unique opportunity to demonstrate the HPGP propulsion system in space, and thus take a significant step towards its use in future space applications. The launch of PRISMA scheduled to 2009.     

Flight demonstration of formation flying capabilities for future missions (NEAT pathfinder)

PRISMA is a demonstration mission for formation-flying and on-orbit-servicing critical technologies that involves two spacecraft launched in low Earth orbit in June 2010 and still in operation. Funded by the Swedish National Space Board, PRISMA mission has been developed by OHB-Sweden (formerly Swedish Space Corporation) with important contributions from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR/GSOC), the French Space Agency (CNES), and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The paper focuses on the last CNES experiment achieved in September 2012 that was devoted to the preparation of future astrometry missions illustrated by the NEAT and µ-NEAT mission concepts. The experiment consisted of performing the type of formation maneuvers required to point the two-satellite axis to a celestial target and maintain it fixed during the observation period. Achieving inertial pointing for a LEO formation represented a new challenge given the numerous constraints from propellant usage to star tracker blinding. The paper presents the experiment objectives in relation with the NEAT/µ-NEAT mission concept, describes its main design features along with the guidance and control algorithms evolutions and discusses the results in terms of performances achieved during the two rehearsals.     

美国航天器交会技术研究

美国交会对接技术的发展可分为三个阶段：＂双子座＂与＂阿波罗＂飞船,航天飞机,以及后航天飞机时代的项目。自主交会技术的发展,首先基于多种制导和导航敏感器的研发,特别是用于最终逼近段的激光敏感器。制导、导航与控制系统的冗余,以及故障检测与隔离的方法,在轨迹安全性中起重要作用。文章研究美国自主交会方案,包括＂双子座＂,＂阿波...     

SATSIM—A real-time multi-satellite simulator for test and validation in formation flying projects

The satellite simulator SATSIM was developed during the experimental PRISMA multi-satellite formation flying project and was primarily aimed to validate the Guidance, Navigation and Control system (GNC) and the on-board software in a simulated real-time environment. The SATSIM system has as a main feature the ability to simulate sensors and actuators, spacecraft dynamics, intra-satellite communication protocols, environmental disturbances, solar illumination conditions as well as solar and lunar blinding. The core of the simulator consists of MATLAB/Simulink models of the spacecraft hardware and the space environment. The models run on a standard personal computer that in the simplest scenario may be connected to satellite controller boards through a CAN (Controller Area Network) data bus. SATSIM is, in conjunction with the RAMSES Test and Verification system, able to perform open-loop, hardware-in-the-loop as well as full-fledged closed-loop tests through the utilisation of peripheral sensor unit simulators. The PRISMA satellites were launched in June 2010 and the project is presently in its operational phase. This paper describes how a low cost but yet reliable simulator such as the SATSIM platform in different configurations has been used through the different phases of a multi-satellite project, from early test of onboard software running on satellite controller boards in a lab environment, to full-fledged closed-loop tests of satellite flight models.     

分布式小卫星系统的技术发展与应用前景

分布式小卫星系统是现代小卫星的一个崭新的应用领域,它能充分发挥小卫星的优势,同时也能克服小卫星的缺点。分布式小卫星系统包括星群、星座、编队飞行等。小卫星编队飞行将在空间遥感、深空探测、通信导航等方面带来一场重大的技术革命。文章论述了小卫星特点和分布式系统概念,介绍了分布式小卫星系统技术发展水平和关键技术,以及未来的应用前景。     

GPS-based relative navigation for the Proba-3 formation flying mission

The primary objective of the Proba-3 mission is to build a solar coronagraph composed of two satellites flying in close formation on a high elliptical orbit and tightly controlled at apogee. Both spacecraft will embark a low-cost GPS receiver, originally designed for low-Earth orbits, to support the mission operations and planning during the perigee passage, when the GPS constellation is visible. The paper demonstrates the possibility of extending the utilization range of the GPS-based navigation system to serve as sensor for formation acquisition and coarse formation keeping. The results presented in the paper aim at achieving an unprecedented degree of realism using a high-fidelity simulation environment with hardware-in-the-loop capabilities. A modified version of the flight-proven PRISMA navigation system, composed of two single-frequency Phoenix GPS receivers and an advanced real-time onboard navigation filter, has been retained for this analysis. For several-day long simulations, the GPS receivers are replaced by software emulation to accelerate the simulation process. Special attention has been paid to the receiver link budget and to the selection of a proper attitude profile. Overall the paper demonstrates that, despite a limited GPS tracking time, the onboard navigation filter gets enough measurements to perform a relative orbit determination accurate at the centimeter level at perigee. Afterwards, the orbit prediction performance depends mainly on the quality of the onboard modeling of the differential solar radiation pressure acting on the satellites. When not taken into account, this perturbation is responsible for relative navigation errors at apogee up to 50 m. The errors can be reduced to only 10 m if the navigation filter is able to model this disturbance with 70% fidelity.     

CCSDS Proximity-1及其在编队飞行小卫星群中的应用

讨论近距离空间链路协议 Proximity- 1的层次结构和传输帧 Version- 3构成 ,分析包括 CCSDS标准包和用户自定义数据的数据业务及定时业务。针对编队飞行小卫星群的星间数据交换和自主测控 ,对 Proximity- 1应用于小卫星群星间通信和星间测距作了探讨     

空间寻的交会的自主控制

自主交会控制是当代面向21世纪的一项重要航天高技术。本文试图在分析研究国内外已有研究成果的基础上,提出适合我国交会控制发展的技术途径、方案及其制导、导航和控制系统的设计。     

基于姿态敏感器的地球同步轨道卫星自主导航研究

本文提出了一种基于姿态敏感器的地球同步轨道卫星自主导航方法,作为解决未来高轨道卫星自主运行的先决条件。在整个系统中,以包含摄动项的HILL 方程作为状态方程,根据由姿态敏感器给出的卫星本体相对于地球和另外两个空间天体的方位,推导出测量方程,进而用简化的推广 Kalman 滤波算法进行状态估计。仿真表明,该方法收敛速度快,精度较高,是一种可行的地球同步轨道卫星自主导航方法。     

火星轨道交会自主导航与制导方法

对火星采样返回任务中的火星轨道交会自主导航和制导技术进行了研究。采用光学自主导航敏感器测量的火星中心方向和视半径,相对敏感器测量的相对位置等观测量,设计了导航滤波器同时估计轨返组合体和上升器的轨道。在导航滤波器设计中,针对光学自主导航敏感器更新频率远低于滤波解算频率的问题,设计了一种连续观测量构造算法,确保每个滤波周期均可进行测量更新,以提高导航精度。基于导航滤波器估计结果,采用T-H制导设计了4脉冲共椭圆交会策略实施轨道控制,从而构成近程交会自主导航和制导方案用于完成火星轨道交会任务。通过数学仿真校验了所提出方法的有效性。     

GEO编队空间机器人系统交会方法

针对地球静止轨道（GEO）上被服务航天器的远距离和非合作特点,提出一种高自主、高协同、多任务的编队空间机器人在轨服务系统方案,实现对非合作目标的自主交会接近。首先,分析GEO卫星轨道约束力小的轨道特征和非合作的信息交互特征,给出由操作空间机器人和监视空间机器人组成的编队在轨服务系统,设计交会接近相对测量分系统以及在轨服务飞行任务;接着,给出典型远距离交会接近的多视线相对导航方法与多冲量相对制导律;最后,进行远距离交会任务仿真校验,结果表明编队空间机器人交会接近方法是有效的。     

First results of PRECISE—Development of a MEMS-based monopropellant micro chemical propulsion system

PRECISE focuses on the research and development of a MEMS-based monopropellant micro chemical propulsion system for highly accurate attitude control of satellites. The availability of such propulsion systems forms the basis for defining new mission concepts such as formation flying and rendezvous manoeuvres. These concepts require propulsion systems for precise attitude and orbit control manoeuvrability. Application-oriented aspects are addressed by two end-users who are planning a formation flying mission for which the propulsion system is crucial. Basic research is conducted aiming at improving crucial MEMS technologies required for the propulsion system. Research and development also focuses on the efficiency and reliability of critical system components. System analysis tools are enhanced to complement the development stages. Finally, the propulsion system will be tested in a simulated space vacuum environment. These experiments will deliver data for the validation of the numerical models.     

国外自主交会测量敏感器技术发展趋势

基于空间任务的高可靠性要求,在传统传感器通过技术改进等方式提升性能的同时,新型探测传感器逐渐进入人们的视野。结合国外自主交会任务,通过介绍自主交会敏感器的发展历程,分析了未来交会对接敏感器的发展方向。     

基于Unscented滤波的伴飞卫星自主相对导航滤波器

为提高导航滤波器的稳定性和计算精度,根据卫星自主导航原理,构造了基于Unscented Kalman滤波（UKF）的伴飞卫星自主相对导航滤波器,建立了算法模型。仿真结果表明：UKF的滤波精度优于扩展Kalman滤波（EKF）,且无需计算量测方程的Jacobi矩阵,计算量小、易于实现。     

交会对接光学成像敏感器设计中的关键问题

自主自动交会对接最后逼近段,通常是以光学成像敏感器作为主要的导航敏感器。本文首先简要介绍国内外交会对接光学成像敏感器的最新研究进展情况,然后就其设计中的几个关键问题进行分析,并给出相关结论。     

基于天文和陆标观测的月球卫星自主导航方法

随着我国月球探测工程的开展,为弥补地面测控的局限性,月球卫星的自主导航技术已成为     

Autonomous navigation for a group of satellites with star sensors and inter-satellite links

This paper studies the autonomous navigation method for a group of satellites based on relative position measurements, which can be obtained by using inter-satellite links for measuring relative range and navigation star sensors for measuring relative bearing. For the satellites that are far from each other, it may be difficult to obtain relative bearing measurement due to poor visibility. To address this difficulty, this paper proposes a novel scheme, where three satellites, whose relative ranges are rather small such that the relative bearings can be observed, are used as beacons for the navigation of the other satellites that are invisible. The feasibility of the proposed navigation scheme is analyzed by using the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB), with the consideration of the availability of relative bearing measurements. In addition, the multiple model adaptive estimation (MMAE) algorithm is adopted to improve the convergence speed of the estimator in the presence of large initial errors. Simulation results illustrate the high performance of the proposed scheme.     

Satellite end of life constraints: Technical and organisational solutions

Since 1974 with the radiocommunication satellite Symphony1, CNES launched and operated 11 GEO and 20 LEO satellites. During those 36 years, both flight segment and ground segment dramatically evolved and operational organisations and techniques equally improved. At the present time, CNES operates 1 GEO satellite and 17 LEO satellites with not much more people and costs than in 1986 when its first Satellite Operation Direction in Toulouse was only in charge of Telecom1A, Telecom1B and Spot1. This fantastic technical evolution combined with the huge increase of services to citizens and governments given by Space systems was unfortunately also associated with an enormous growth of space pollution by debris of all sizes. From the beginning, CNES was a major actor of the international effort to promote regulations in order to try to reduce or at least control this problematic situation. Internally, CNES, not only set up an operational on-call service to deal with collision risks, but decided to do its best to apply the new guidelines to the end of life of satellites under its responsibility even for those developed and launched a very long time ago. For instance, that was the case in 2009 for the reorbitation of the GEO satellite Telecom 2C (launched in 1995) and for the deorbitation of the LEO satellite Spot2 (launched in 1990). In addition, CNES prepares procedures to be able to be as exemplary as possible for its other spacecrafts whose end of life approaches. The constraints and challenges to face in order to cope with these new requirements are multiple: choice of final orbit, realistic calculation of re-entry duration, estimation of residual propellant, electric passivation, management of explosion risks… All these studies and operational experience gained will be helpful for the new role of CNES, which recently became in charge of controlling space operators in the frame of the new French space law on space operations.