Several NASA and DoD missions are envisioned that will utilize distributed, autonomous clusters of spacecraft. The Air Force Research Laboratory initiated the TechSat 21 mission to demonstrate the key enabling technologies of formation flying and distributed radar. Princeton Satellite Systems developed the Formation Flying Module (FFM) for TechSat 21 to provide autonomous reconfiguration, forma...

This paper studies robust control schemes for two spacecraft in formation subjected to external disturbances in the space environment. Two sliding mode control schemes are designed to generate control with a finite time convergence property. The super twisting and adaptive super twisting control algorithms are developed for the two-spacecraft formation flying system. The second method of Lyapun...

This paper describes the first steps for the setting up and exploitation of the PLATFORM test bench. PLATFORM test bench is intended for the ground testing and validation of GNC technologies and sensors for scenarios including synchronized flight of two or more spacecraft (Formation Flying and Rendez-vous and Docking) and it can be eventually extended to cope with the requirements for robotic a...

This paper presents the design of a multi-spacecraft system for the deflection of asteroids. Each spacecraft is equipped with a fibre laser and a solar concentrator. The laser induces the sublimation of a portion of the surface of the asteroid, and the resultant jet of gas and debris thrusts the asteroid off its natural course. The main idea is to have a formation of spacecraft flying in the pr...

Space mission with multiple spacecraft formation is an important means to space operation. A new relative navigation algorithm based on stereo vision is developed aiming at high navigation precision requirement of spacecraft formation flying. It uses stereo vision camera attached on the tracking craft as measurement sensor, gets the relative location of target craft in the tracking craft body r...

Manned spacecraft will require maintenance robots to inspect and repair components of the spacecraft that are only accessible from the outside. This paper presents a design of a novel free-flying maintenance robot (known as a MaintenanceBot.) The MaintenanceBot uses Control Moment Gyros (CMGs) for manipulator arm and attitude control. This provides high authority control in a compact low power ...