Abstract: Under an Air Force Phase II SBIR contract, Microcosm is developing a self-configuring avionics network, scheduled for test on a sounding rocket in late 2003 or early 2004. This system is extendable to spacecraft avionics and housekeeping functions, enabling...
Abstract: This paper defines the basic constraints for interplanetary round trip travel or, equivalently, for round trip travel from and to a natural or artificial satellite, such as round trips from the International Space Station to another satellite and back. While...
Abstract: Autonomous on-orbit servicing of satellites leads to a significant savings in mission life-cycle costs, especially for expensive satellites and for expensive satellite systems composed of many satellites, such as constellations or close formations. The...
Abstract: The ELVIS (Expendable Launch Vehicle with Integrated Spacecraft) concept involves: (1) dropping off the upper stage of the launch vehicle as low as possible, with integral low-thrust propulsion taking the spacecraft to its final orbital destination; (2)...
Abstract: Autonomous navigation and orbit control can provide both significant operations cost reduction and increased mission performance. By controlling the orbit to match a chosen reference, ground operations are significantly reduced and scheduling becomes highly...
Abstract: In general, autonomous rendezvous and docking requires that two spacecraft start at a remote distance (i.e., out of sight of each other), come together into a common orbit, rendezvous, dock, and control the new combined spacecraft in both orbit and attitude....
