In May 2007 the first US-sponsored fully autonomous rendezvous and capture was successfully performed by DARPA's Orbital Express (OE) mission. For the following three months, the Boeing ASTRO spacecraft and the Ball Aerospace NEXTSat performed multiple rendezvous and docking maneuvers to demonstrate some of the technologies needed for satellite servicing. MSFC's Advanced Video Guidance Sensor (AVGS) was a near-field proximity operations sensor integrated into ASTRO's Autonomous Rendezvous and Capture Sensor System (ARCSS), which provided relative state knowledge to the ASTRO GN&C system. AVGS was one of the primary docking sensors included in ARCSS. This paper provides an overview of the AVGS sensor that flew on Orbital Express, a summary of the AVGS ground testing, and a discussion of AVGS performance on-orbit for OE. The AVGS is a laser-based system that is capable of providing bearing at midrange distances and full six degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) knowledge at near ranges. The sensor fires lasers of two different wavelengths to illuminate retro-reflectors on the Long Range Target (LRT) and the Short Range Target (SRT) mounted on NEXTSat. The retro-reflector filters allow one laser wavelength to pass through and be reflected, while blocking the other wavelength. Subtraction of one return image from the other image removes extraneous light sources and reflections from anything other than the corner cubes on the LRT and SRT. The very bright spots that remain in the subtracted image are processed to provide bearing or 6-DOF relative state information.
Orbital Express Advanced Video Guidance Sensor
2008-03-01
3875541 byte
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Orbital Express Advanced Video Guidance Sensor: Ground Testing, Flight Results and Comparisons
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2008
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