A Control Framework for CUBESAT Rendezvous and Proximity Operations using Electric Propulsion

TL;DR

This paper introduces a modular control framework for CubeSat rendezvous and proximity operations using electric propulsion, addressing real-time constraints and coupling issues, demonstrated through high-fidelity simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel control framework with modular maneuver blocks for electric propulsion CubeSat RPO, considering attitude-thrust coupling and hardware limitations.

Findings

Successfully establishes a safety ellipse after 41 days of RPO

Consumes 44% of total fuel during maneuver

Creates a 14 km x 27 km x 8 km safety zone around the target

Abstract

A control framework is presented to solve the rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) problem of the EP-Gemini mission. In this mission, a CubeSat chaser is controlled to approach and circumnavigate the other uncooperative CubeSat target. Such a problem is challenging because the chaser operates on a single electric propulsion thruster, for which coupling between attitude control and thrust vector, and charging of the electric propulsion system must be taken into consideration. In addition, the access to relative states in real time is not achievable due to the onboard hardware constraints of the two CubeSats. The developed control framework addresses these limitations by applying four modularized maneuver blocks to correct the chaser's mean orbit elements in sequence. The control framework is based on a relative motion called safety ellipse to ensure a low collision risk. The complete EP-Gemini mission is demonstrated by the implementation of the proposed control framework in a numerical simulation that includes high order perturbations for low Earth orbit. The simulation result shows that a safety ellipse is established after a 41-day RPO maneuver, which consumes 44$\%$ of the total fuel in terms of $\Delta V$. The resulting 3-dimensional safety ellipse circumnavigates the target with an approximate dimension of 14 km $\times$ 27 km $\times$ 8 km.