Guidance, navigation and control of small satellites

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Over the past decade or so, the space industry has seen a paradigm shift from large expensive satellites to small inexpensive satellites. Small and very small satellites have a number of advantages. They are significantly less expensive than large satellites. This fact alone makes them attractive, in particular making them accessible to universities (with support from industry and space agencies) wishing to perform on-orbit science. Small satellites are an enabling technology for satellite formation flying. This is a topic of significant current interest within Canada and worldwide. An essential component of almost all space systems is the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) system. There is a wealth of literature devoted to the theory of GNC in general. However, there exists a gap between the state-of-the-art in theory and the state-of-the-practise. In some cases, the theory is ahead of the practise, and in other cases, the practise is ahead of the theory. The long-term objective of this research program is to apply advanced guidance, navigation and control techniques to current and anticipated future space systems, in particular for small and very small satellites. The intent is to provide designers with a set of guidelines and tools for the application of implementable state-of-the-art GNC algorithms to space system problems with provably guaranteed stability and performance margins under real conditions. This will involve both theoretical and experimental investigations. In the short term, the intention is to focus on the spacecraft formation flying problem. The proposed research has the potential to greatly progress the state-of-the-practise of GNC of space systems, in particular for small and very small satellites. In turn, this will increase the capabilities of such systems. Given the increasing interest in small and very small satellites within Canada in industry, academia and government, this will assist in placing Canada at the forefront of these technologies.