Autonomous Onboard Risk Mitigation for Spacecraft Proximity Operations

Kayhan Space in collaboration with University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) and Astroscale U.S. is proposing a zero-SWaP software enhancement of the Astroscale U.S. flight software for performing autonomous onboard low-risk spacecraft proximity operations – Kayhan Proxima. Advanced Rendezvous, Proximity Operations (RPO) and Docking (RPOD) capabilities are key in ensuring a sustainable commercial space industry growth. These capabilities open the door for performing complex on-orbit operations, e.g., inspection, in-situ tracking, debris removal, refueling, and on-orbit manufacturing. They also have an important defense implication. Perfecting RPO and RPOD capabilities will allow U.S. to protect its space assets and to stay ahead of our adversaries. Today such operations are extremely manual with ground-in-the-loop orchestrating on-orbit maneuvers, tracking the assets, and updating the actions as needed. Autonomous processes are required the ensure efficiency, timeliness, and scalability of such missions. Our proposed solution enables safe and autonomous proximity operations between two spacecraft or a spacecraft and a debris object.