Implementation of Asteroid Rendezvous Maneuver in a Hardware-in-the-Loop Platform
With the increasing development of interplanetary missions and space explorations, the advancement of flight control, guidance, and navigation systems for space vehicles has gained significant importance. A project was undertaken to design, develop, and test a simulation platform for space maneuvers and proximity operations with an asteroid. Initially, a three-degree- of-freedom air-bearing testbed, including two translational and one rotational degrees of freedom, was constructed to simulate the operational environment of a spacecraft. Additionally, a “dark room” was equipped and set up to conduct the tests and operations, creating conditions that closely resemble the space environment.
The project began with the construction of the Space Maneuvering System (SMS) by Engineer Morteza Abbasi, but after a while, the project was restarted by Mohammad Akhtari. The tasks of this project included upgrading the hardware and software systems of SMS, as well as constructing, equipping, and setting up the dark room for testing the SMS system.
Mission: The system searches for the target asteroid in a completely dark environment, and upon identifying the target asteroid, it approaches it and maintains a specified distance.
This project was supervised by Dr. Mirshams and advised by Engineer Abbasi.