In-orbit Evaluation of Proximity Sensor for Rendezvous Docking of ETS-VII

Abstract

Engineering Test Satellite-VII (ETS-VII) successfully performed the first autonomous Rendezvous Docking (RVD) flight using an image sensor with 6 degree-of-freedom (6 DOF) control in the world. ETS-VII is a test satellite to perform in-orbit demonstration of the autonomous RVD technology. Proximity Sensor (PXS) is the image sensor which measures relative position and attitude, and PXS navigation is used primarily in a docking approach phase (within 2m from target satellite). In this paper, we introduce ETS-VII PXS design and evaluation results of its in-orbit performance. In-orbit performance is evaluated in comparison with another navigation sensors such as Rendezvous Radar (RVR). Measurement accuracy of PXS is better than its requirement. And it is shown that image sensor is useful for rendezvous navigation sensor.