PROBA3 Formation Flying System, a key technology for future formation flying science missions: current status and simulation results

Paper number

IAC-18,A7,3,2,x47061

Author

Mr. Luigi Strippoli, Spain, GMV Aerospace & Defence SAU

Coauthor

Mr. Juan Antonio Bejar-Romero, Spain, GMV Aerospace & Defence SAU

Coauthor

Mr. Marco Canetri, Portugal, GMV Aerospace & Defence SAU

Coauthor

Mr. Julien Peyrard, Spain, GMV Aerospace & Defence SAU

Coauthor

Mr. Joao Branco, Portugal, GMV Aerospace & Defence SAU

Coauthor

Mr. Thomas Vincent Peters, Spain, GMV Aerospace & Defence SAU

Coauthor

Mr. Ambroise Bidaux-Sokolowski, Poland, GMV Innovating Solutions

Coauthor

Dr. Jean-Francois Hamel, Canada, NGC Aerospace Ltd.

Coauthor

Ms. Pamela Woo, Canada, NGC Aerospace Ltd.

Coauthor

Mrs. Marie-Kiki Langelier, Canada, NGC Aerospace Ltd.

Coauthor

Dr. Ludwik Sobiesiak, Canada, NGC Aerospace Ltd.

Coauthor

Mr. Daniel Serrano, Spain, SENER Ingenieria y Sistemas, S.A.

Coauthor

Mr. Rafael Contreras, Spain, SENER Ingenieria y Sistemas, S.A.

Coauthor

Mr. Damien Galano, The Netherlands, ESA european space agency

Coauthor

Mr. Alexander Cropp, The Netherlands, ESA

Year

2018

Abstract

PROBA3 is ESA Formation Flying demonstration mission, currently in phase CD and planned to be launched at the end of the decade. The mission, composed of two spacecraft (one Occulter and one Coronograph) flying on a High Elliptic Orbit around Earth will permit, during the apogee phase of the orbit, to 1) observe the corona of the Sun with unprecedented accuracy and scientific return and 2) demonstrate a set of technologies needed for potential future space exploration missions like highly variable focal length space telescopes.
One of the core technologies to be widely demonstrated is the Formation Flying System (FFS), i.e. the software and the hardware (actuators, sensors and metrologies) which will permit to autonomously perform, with the required strict accuracy, the manoeuvres necessary for accomplishing mission scientific and technology demonstration goals, guaranteeing at the same time the mission safety thanks to the implementation of a robust perigee pass strategy, collision avoidance and go to safe manoeuvres.
The paper will present a summary of the mission and its main features, an extensive overview of the FFS, showing the main components of the system (i.e. Formation Flying Manager (FFM), Formation Flying Guidance Navigation and Control (FF-GNC), Relative GPS (rGPS) and Spacecraft Service (SC-SRV)), the formation flying mission phases and manoeuvres, the interactions with other elements of the architecture (e.g. Platform Software, Ground), the current development and validation status and the main results obtained with the Functional Engineering Simulator (FES), which will preliminary show the feasibility of the FFS algorithms with respect to the mission needs. The paper will also illustrate the next steps of the FFS development and validation, where the FFSW (implemented in Matlab/Simulink) will be autocoded, integrated and tested in a real time Software Based Test Bench (SBTB) representative of the CPU and the hardware which will fly on-board the two spacecraft.

Abstract document

IAC-18,A7,3,2,x47061.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-18,A7,3,2,x47061.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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