GNC of a cargo spacecraft for on-orbit servicing of Herschel at L2

in IAC 2022 congress proceedings, 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) (2022, September)

t is anticipated that space exploration will need to rely on In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) in order toextend spacecraft lifetime and/or reduce the missions cost and/or the cruise time. For the Moon ... [more ▼]

t is anticipated that space exploration will need to rely on In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) in order toextend spacecraft lifetime and/or reduce the missions cost and/or the cruise time. For the Moon and, inthe future, Mars colonization, relying on in-situ resources is a necessary step to become independent fromthe Earth. The possibility to produce resources on the Moon is advantageous for those missions that aretoo far from the Earth to be resupplied. At the SnT Research Centre, the Luxembourg Space Agency issupporting a feasibility study to assess the benefit of on-orbit servicing (OOS), exploiting lunar resourcesfor the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel ended its operations in 2013 as a consequence of the depletionof its coolant and, in turn, of the capability of cooling down its instruments. To extend its operations,a resupply mission has been envisaged relying on an adapted cargo spacecraft employed in lunar gatewayoperations. This paper deals with the trajectory design and optimization of the cargo on its journey from theMoon to rendezvous with Herschel and with orbit and attitude control. Considering Herschel’s orientationon its orbit, with the sunshield in the direction of the Sun and the need to access to Herschel’s rear panelto perform the resupply operation, a final approach along the negative x-axis, where the primaries lie, isconsidered. A multiple shooting technique is used to perform a flanking manoeuvre. Moreover, an attitudecontrol algorithm is adopted to track the attitude trajectory provided by the guidance algorithms which, inturn, ensure minimum thrusting errors of the cargo spacecraft and a continuous visibility of Herschel. Infuture works, different perturbations will be considered and angular rates induced by the movement of therobotic arms will be compensated [less ▲]