A multi-step Guidance and Control strategy for autonomous rendezvous with a non-cooperative and tumbling spacecraft

This paper proposes an original Guidance and Control architecture applicable to close-range rendezvous scenarios toward a non-cooperative and tumbling space target. The guidance function computes the rototranslational reference trajectory to (i) synchronize the chaser with the tumbling motion of the target and (ii) maneuver it to a desired final position at which capture operations can start. The desired reference relative trajectory is generated through a multi-step, iterative and semi-analytical approach. The control task is handled by a coupled orbit-attitude H infinity controller. Guidance and Control performance is numerically assessed by means of Monte Carlo statistical analysis.