Autonomous Spacecraft Proximity Operations with Uncooperative Resident Space Objects

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A recent study determined that more than 1,200 satellites will be launched over the next 10 years, and revenues from the manufacture and implementation of these satellites is expected to reach $194 billion. While most will perform without major problems, statistics predict that a small but significant number will experience on-orbit anomalies or failures of various severity, resulting in losses of billions of dollars for governments and private organizations. As demonstrated by numerous studies, performing proximity operations (visual inspection, approach, rendezvous and docking, and capture, service/repair) with such Resident Space Objects (RSO) could achieve substantial savings. To make those proximity operations feasible, the on-board capabilities must be improved over traditional missions, which means significantly increased autonomy, and highly accurate relative trajectory guidance and control. These challenges are further complicated in practical situations because, due to mechanical or electrical failures, or fuel depletion, the target RSO will likely be uncooperative, in the sense that it could be rotating at an unknown angular rate, have no communication capabilities, be of an uncertain shape, or have unknown physical parameters (mass and mass moments of inertia). Moreover, un-modeled orbital perturbations disturbing the relative motion of the spacecraft may impact the capability to perform accurate maneuvers safely. The main objective of this research program is to develop nonlinear guidance and adaptive control systems enabling autonomous spacecraft proximity operations with uncooperative RSO. Specifically, nonlinear guidance and adaptive control systems, respectively responsible to calculate and track the desired relative trajectory with respect to an uncooperative RSO, will be developed. These systems will be experimentally validated at Carleton's Spacecraft Proximity Operations Testbed, which consists of air-bearing free-floating embedded spacecraft platforms capable of performing autonomous guidance and control maneuvers in a laboratory environment. Thanks to the new guidance and control methods, the proposed research will lead to higher motion tracking accuracy and enhanced robustness; thereby facilitating seamless interactions between a robotic spacecraft and its uncertain environment, which arises from the need to execute proximity operations with uncooperative RSO. Given the increasing interests in such complex space operations in Canada, this research will place civil and military Canadian space organizations (such as Defence Research and Development Canada, Canadian Armed Forces, and Canadian Space Agency) at the forefront of these technologies, in this niche of the global space market. As an added benefit, the techniques developed may foster the development of similar algorithms for other intelligent aerospace agents operating in unknown or challenging environment, such as autonomous drones and unmanned aerial vehicles.