QUALIFICATION OF AN OPTICAL RENDEZVOUS SENSOR

摘要

This paper presents the qualification of a new rendezvous sensor named Videometer. The aim of the Videometer Assembly (VDMA) is to support the correct docking of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to the International Space Station (ISS) providing relevant Range, Line Of Sight and relative attitude information. The Videometer Assembly is composed of the Videometer (VDM) implemented on the ATV and the rendezvous Target (RVT) mounted on the ISS. The operating principle is based on VDM laser diode beams illuminating the RVT. Reflected light towards the VDM is detected and processed to compute target data. At short distance, the accuracy on range is a few millimeters, the accuracy on Line Of Sight and attitude is some hundredth of degrees. The robustness of this rendezvous sensor is a key point for this development and the performance of the sensor is secured even with the sun in the smearing area of the detector and during proton hits when the spacecraft is crossing through the South Atlantic Anomaly. To demonstrate the performance and the robustness of the Videometer Assembly a four step qualification program was performed. A qualification test program is run on the Videometer including performance and environmental test sequence. Finally digital images are used to test the capacity of the equipment in the most critical conditions.