Operator Monitoring and Support System for Rendezvous and Docking

Rendezvous and docking operations of unmanned supply vehicles, e.g. presently Progress within the Russian Mir Space Station scenario, and later within the International Space Station scenario the Russian Progress, the European ATV and the Japanese HTV, are automatic but not fully autonomous. Safety of crew, vehicle security of the target station and mission success assurance require monitoring and interaction capabilities by human operators on ground and in the target station. This paper discusses the underlying philosophy, requirements and concepts of ESA’s remote monitoring and control system developments for rendezvous and docking and describes their H/W and S/W implementation. The strategies of a rendezvous approach to docking are briefly explained and possible contingency situations are indicated. It is then shown how the remote rendezvous support systems can help in such situations and can complement the chaser spacecraft’s onboard automatic control systems e.g. by directly commanding manoeuvres for collision avoidance and recovery, by modifying the guidance programme, by re-synchronising the approach timeline with external events, such as sun illumination conditions and crew activities.