GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTROL ALGORITHMS FOR CUBESAT FORMATION FLYING

The development of accurate and robust guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) algorithms which can run efficiently on low-power processors using passive sensors, while placing an emphasis on spacecraft autonomy, is one of the primary problems faced in developing on-board rendezvous, proximity operations, (RPO) and docking software for CubeSat formation flying. This paper outlines the design of the innovative RPO GNC system and underlying algorithms used to solve these issues for the CPOD mission. Absolute and relative navigation is performed using a dual-inertial state Extended Kalman Filter, and impulsive guidance and control are performed in a fuel-optimal state-space maneuver targeting formulation using differential mean orbital elements. The GNC software is implemented in a flexible, efficient software architecture which manages on-board RPO functions in a multi-threaded, prioritized process environment.