Formation Flying Mission Analysis for PROBA3
- Paper number
IAC-07-C1.7.02
- Author
Dr. Luis F. Penin, DEIMOS Space S.L., Spain
- Coauthor
Mr. Juan-Carlos Bastante, DEIMOS Space, Spain
- Coauthor
Mr. Juan L. Cano, DEIMOS Space S.L., Spain
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Missions requiring formation flying are currently being investigated in all space domains. Formation Flying (FF) technologies will provide the leap in performances required for future missions in Science, Earth (and planetary) Observation and also space application areas not yet established, e.g. advanced civil security, space exploration. PROBA3 is a Formation Flying (FF) Mission currently under feasibility analysis by ESA The major objective of the PROBA-3 mission consists in the development of technologies enabling future formation flying missions (command and control architectures, sensors, actuators, GNC, etc.). As a complementary objective, PROBA3 will embark as a payload a coronagraph to observe the Sun corona. It requires 2 spacecraft, one spacecraft carries the sun occulter and the other spacecraft carries the coronagraph instrument. Deimos Space S.L. has performed Formation Flying Mission Analysis tasks, including the design of FF management strategies, teamed with Alcatel Alenia Space which leads one of the two consortia selected by ESA to perform Phase A activities The paper will present in detail the following FF mission analysis activities carried-out: - Definition of the baseline HEO orbit taking into account FF requirements - Definition of FF operational modes: experimental, loose formation acquisition, loose formation and tight formation acquisition - Design of formation during the different operational modes - Design of strategies for loose formation passive collision avoidance around perigee - Design and analysis of FF demonstration manoeuvres - Derivation of relative navigation requirements -Computation of DV budgets for all the operational modes All these analysis have been made for the complete mission timeline of two years, considering the natural drift of the absolute orbit and the different location of the Sun impacting the Coronagraph experiments. Special emphasis will be put on the guidance algorithms designed through the use of the complete non-linear equations of relative motion and an analytical formulation of a transition matrix for elliptical orbits.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-C1.7.02.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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