GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTROL SYSTEM FOR MANEUVERABLE PICO-SATELLITES PICO-SATELLITES ARE AN EMERGING N…

Public award description

GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTROL SYSTEM FOR MANEUVERABLE PICO-SATELLITES PICO-SATELLITES ARE AN EMERGING NEW CLASS OF SPACECRAFT. MANEUVERABLE PICO-SATELLITES REQUIRE ACTIVE GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTROL (GN&C) SYSTEMS TO PERFORM COORDINATED TASKS SUCH AS FORMATION FLYING AND AUTOMATED RENDEZVOUS AND DOCKING. A COMPACT, LOW POWER GN&C SYSTEM WILL BE FABRICATED AND TESTED FOR USE ON PICO-SATELLITES. THE PROPOSED DESIGN PROVIDES 6 DEGREES-OF-FREEDOM (DOF) TRANSLATION AND ROTATION CONTROL IN LESS THAN 25% OF A 3-UNIT CUBESAT OR 3 DOF ROTATION ONLY CONTROL IN LESS THAN ONE HALF A STANDARD CUBESAT VOLUME. DURING PHASE 2, FLIGHT COMPONENTS WILL BE PROCURED, INTEGRATED, AND TESTED AS A SINGLE EMBEDDED SYSTEM AND DELIVERED AS A FLIGHT UNIT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALIFICATION AND IN-ORBIT DEMONSTRATION ON A SUITABLE PICO-SATELLITE FLIGHT OPPORTUNITY. THE TECHNOLOGY IS EXPECTED TO REACH TRL 6 BY THE CONCLUSION OF PHASE 2.