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Formation Control for the Maxim Mission.Over the next twenty years, a wave of change is occurring in the spacebased scientific remote sensing community. While the fundamental limits in the spatial and angular resolution achievable in spacecraft have been reached, based on today's technology, an expansive new technology base has appeared over the past decade in the area of Distributed Space Systems (DSS). A key subset of the DSS technology area is that which covers precision formation flying of space vehicles. Through precision formation flying, the baselines, previously defined by the largest monolithic structure which could fit in the largest launch vehicle fairing, are now virtually unlimited. Several missions including the Micro-Arcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission (MAXIM), and the Stellar Imager will drive the formation flying challenges to achieve unprecedented baselines for high resolution, extended-scene, interferometry in the ultraviolet and X-ray regimes. This paper focuses on establishing the feasibility for the formation control of the MAXIM mission. The Stellar Imager mission requirements are on the same order of those for MAXIM. This paper specifically addresses: (1) high-level science requirements for these missions and how they evolve into engineering requirements; (2) the formation control architecture devised for such missions; (3) the design of the formation control laws to maintain very high precision relative positions; and (4) the levels of fuel usage required in the duration of these missions. Specific preliminary results are presented for two spacecraft within the MAXIM mission.
Document ID
20040081408
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Luquette, Richard J.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Leitner, Jesse
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Gendreau, Keith
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Sanner, Robert M.
(Maryland Univ. College Park, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2nd International Symposium on Formation Flying Missions and Technologies
Location: Washington, DC
Country: United States
Start Date: September 14, 2004
End Date: September 16, 2004
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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