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Enabling Spacecraft Formation Flying through Position Determination, Control and Enhanced Automation TechnologiesFormation Flying is revolutionizing the way the space community conducts science missions around the Earth and in deep space. This technological revolution will provide new, innovative ways for the community to gather scientific information, share that information between space vehicles and the ground, and expedite the human exploration of space. Once fully matured, formation flying will result in numerous sciencecraft acting as virtual platforms and sensor webs, gathering significantly more and better science data than call be collected today. To achieve this goal, key technologies must be developed including those that address the following basic questions posed by the spacecraft: Where am I? Where is the rest of the fleet? Where do I need to be? What do I have to do (and what am I able to do) to get there? The answers to these questions and the means to implement those answers will depend oil the specific mission needs and formation configuration. However, certain critical technologies are common to most formations. These technologies include high-precision position and relative-position knowledge including Global Positioning System (GPS) mid celestial navigation; high degrees of spacecraft autonomy inter-spacecraft communication capabilities; targeting and control including distributed control algorithms, and high precision control thrusters and actuators. This paper provides an overview of a selection of the current activities NASA/DoD/Industry/Academia are working to develop Formation Flying technologies as quickly as possible, the hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve our formation flying vision, and the team's approach to transfer this technology to space. It will also describe several of the formation flying testbeds, such as Orion and University Nanosatellites, that are being developed to demonstrate and validate many of these innovative sensing and formation control technologies.
Document ID
20000086214
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Bristow, John (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Bauer, Frank (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Hartman, Kate (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
How, Jonathan (Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA United States)
Date Acquired
September 7, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2000
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Meeting Information
Meeting: 15th International Symposium of Space Flight Dynamics
Location: Biarritz
Country: France
Start Date: June 26, 2000
End Date: June 30, 2000
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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