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...

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 and Control for Spinning, Gun-Launched Projectiles

This thesis report is focused on the design of a guidance and control system that is able to minimize the deviation from the desired impact point for a firing range of 1 kilometer, given a 30mm spinning gun-launched projectile with a novel actuator design. This actuator is fixed on the projectile and offers a single force that can only be...

Autonomous Guidance and Control for Precision Landing on Planetary Bodies: Convex Optimization Approach For Mars and Titan Case Studies

Autonomously landing a spacecraft on the surface of a planetary body with a degree of precision in the order of meters is highly challenging. Over the course of time, the landing ellipse, defined as the region with a 99% likelihood of where a space vehicle will land, has improved steadily but currently still has dimensions in the order of...

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...