Examination of Circle-type of Retro-reflective Marker for Docking Interface of On-orbit Service

Abstract

On-orbit service technology is important to develop future orbital operations such as refueling, fixing a broken satellite, and replacing an old part with an upgraded one. Basically, the chaser has to capture an orbital target in each orbital operation. However, a docking interface consisting of the docking mechanism and a target marker for on-orbit service has yet to be standardized. This paper focuses on the target marker, especially a circle-type of retro-reflective marker (CR-Marker). First, the marker requirements are clarified by conducting a survey and the trade-off between existing visual markers is described. Based on these requirements, the proposed marker is designed and produced experimentally. The estimation accuracy of the proposed marker is evaluated by on-ground experiments.