This paper describes principally the ascent phase of the Mars Surface Sample Return mission, where the terminal rendezvous phase is emphasized to describe a newly developed automatic rendezvous and docking system. The autonomous rendezvous and docking in Mars orbit is used to reduce the payload necessary to achieve the mission so that today's-sized spacecraft can be used. Proportional navigation guidance utilizing a simple control algorithm was developed and tested to accomplish the rendezvous. This simplified guidance scheme uses only one parabolic axial control curve generated on-board based on its dispersed state and requires no closing velocity change.


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    Title :

    Autonomous rendezvous and docking in Mars orbit


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Astrodynamics Specialist Conference ; 1975 ; Nassau, Bahamas


    Publication date :

    1975-07-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English