Duration: 4 months
A new space era is coming. Numerous miniaturized probes will soon pervade the solar system for commercial and exploration needs. Constellations made of thousands of spacecraft will soon revolutionize space-based services. In the next future, minor bodies will be the final destination of diverse space missions, since they can give answers to the origin of life and provide resources for the sustainable development of the humanity. However, the state-of-the-art is to control space probes from ground. The need for large teams and specific infrastructures yields extremely expensive operations, that do not scale for small probes.
This research activity will seek new methods to enable more efficient spacecraft operation. In particular, the problem of navigating future small spacecraft in the vicinity of minor bodies (currently involving ground teams for collecting radiometric measurements of the spacecraft trajectory, performing orbit propagation, generating manoeuvre commands and monitoring the execution of maneuvres) will be addressed by fostering autonomous guidance and control. In order to reach its aim, the project envisages the definition of an efficient method for robust guidance and control in close proximity and its deployment on appropriate spacecraft-compatible hardware that is optimized for the limited resources available on board small spacecraft. A concurrent methodology will be exploited to implement the high-performance high-efficiency hardware-software set (HW-SW co-design).
The outcomes from this project will have a significant impact on the future of space exploration and exploitation, increasing dramatically the potential scientific return and opening the space and its market to new operators, such as small enterprises and universities.
