Ground Facility for Validation of Proximity Operations: a Hardware–In–the–Loop Experiment

Thanks to its great potential, On–Orbit Servicing (OOS) is rising major interest among the space community and is leading a considerable effort in the development of space technologies. While a growing number of global actors are focusing on OOS especially exploiting small satellites, the capability to simulate close–range operations between two or more agents in laboratory is essential for the validation of enabling technologies, such as guidance algorithms, relative navigation sensors and docking mechanisms. In the framework of proximity operations, miniaturized platforms like CubeSats are often considered as their compactness make them particularly suitable for fly–arounds and inspection tasks. The concept of a laboratory simulation environment composed of complementary facilities is proposed in this work and preliminary testing is presented. The goal of this initial experiment is to test the facility performances and its capability to accurately track a dynamic trajectory with a CubeSat–compatible navigation sensor.