Autonomous rendezvous and docking by engineering test satellite VII: a challenge of Japan in guidance, navigation and control—Breakwell memorial lecture

Abstract

Since 1969, National Development Agency (NASDA) has learned plenty of technologies from the United States in the field of guidance, navigation and control. As a next step beyond the GN&C technology for conventional rockets and spacecraft, rendezvous and docking experiment by using ETS-VII was a real challenge of NASDA in this field. This lecture outlines this project including the background, the trajectory design philosophy, the sensors and actuators, experiment plan as well as the summary of the on-orbit experiment results. Future projects to utilize the established technology will be also explained briefly.