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Centralized Autonomous Relative Navigation of Multiple Cubesats around Didymos System

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Abstract

This paper presents an on-board, centralized autonomous navigation algorithm able to reconstruct the trajectories of a fleet of CubeSats relative to an asteroid binary system. The algorithm is executed on-board the main spacecraft, which takes relative measurements using a narrow optical camera and an additional relative measurement, being inter satellite ranging in this paper. The image processing algorithm detects and tracks the CubeSats, deriving line-of-sight measurements. A non-linear estimation filter is employed to reconstruct the trajectory. The algorithm is tested using high-fidelity trajectory simulator and synthetic images generation routines.

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Acknowledgements

The presented work was carried out under ESA funding ESA RFP/ 3-16012/19/NL/CRS/hh, item no. 19.3EC.04.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Politecnico di Milano, Via La Masa 34, 20156, Milano, Italy

    Stefano Silvestrini, Margherita Piccinin, Andrea Capannolo & Michèle Lavagna

  2. European Space Agency, ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

    Jesus Gil Fernandez

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  1. Stefano Silvestrini
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  2. Margherita Piccinin
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  3. Andrea Capannolo
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  4. Michèle Lavagna
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  5. Jesus Gil Fernandez
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Correspondence to Stefano Silvestrini.

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Presented at the AIAA Scitech 2020 Forum ESA RFP/ 3-16012/19/NL/CRS/hh-19.3EC.04

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Silvestrini, S., Piccinin, M., Capannolo, A. et al. Centralized Autonomous Relative Navigation of Multiple Cubesats around Didymos System. J Astronaut Sci 68, 750–784 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40295-021-00268-x

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