Guidance, Navigation and Control System Design of Envisat Active Debris Removal

Space debris is becoming one of the major risks to be suffered by operating and future space missions. Recent studies show that the number of potentially hazardous uncontrolled orbital bodies is growing with time, increasing the probability of impact with operational satellites. To counteract this problem, several studies are being suggested to...

Aerobraking Navigation, Guidance and Control: A Comparison of State Variables Performance in Propagation

The amount of propellant required to perform deep-space maneuvers usually consists of a large percentage of the total spacecraft mass. In the early '90s, a new technique was experimented at the end of the Magellan mission, which employed the atmosphere of Mars itself, to reduce the eccentricity of the orbit over a long period of time. Said...

Guidance, Navigation, and Control for Very Small Asteroid Mitigation Missions

Airbus Defence and Space GmbH in Friedrichshafen is the project coordinator of the NEOShield-2 project whose purpose is to develop the technology needed for near-Earth object (NEO) impact prevention. This research is located within the scope of a kinetic impactor mission which typically consists of two spacecraft: impactor and observer. This...