The SPHERES ISS Laboratory for Rendezvous and Formation Flight

The International Space Station (ISS) provides the ability for the creation of true laboratories in a microgravity environment. The availability of humans in the ISS presents a further advantage: the ability to put humans in the design loop. The MIT Space Systems Laboratory developed a new laboratory design philosophy to take advantage of these new resources. The new philosophy is implemented in the SPHERES testbed, which creates a laboratory environment in the ISS that allows multiple scientists to develop and validate high-risk control, autonomy, and metrology algorithms for separated spacecraft that enable formation flight, rendezvous, and docking of satellites. By incorporating humans into the design loop of a micro-gravity system, as well as providing the ability to replenish consumables, the testbed provides a low-risk yet high-payoff environment where algorithms can be tested to their limits prior to deployment in full space missions. Subsequent deployment can be performed with a higher degree of confidence.