The Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS) is a manned exploration vehicle which will transport crew both to the ISS in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and to Low Lunar Orbit (LLO). In this last case, CSTS will automatically perform Rendezvous and Docking (RvD) with lunar infrastructures, allowing thus manned lunar landings. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the CSTS RvD subsystem, specially the configuration required for lunar exploration. Designing the RvD subsystem will be a highly challenging task, since new sensors principles need to be developed and employed, as well as a new docking mechanism and dedicated guidance, navigation and control algorithms. Subsystem requirements for exploration configuration will be assesed and specific constraints of lunar RvD operations will be studied, taking into account orbital perturbations and failure tolerance requirements. Sensor principles will be compared and selected, and a specific approach strategy will be proposed. In addition to this, a suitable new docking mechanism will be proposed. As a result of this study, a preliminar Rendezvous and Docking subsystem design will be selected, including sensors, actuators, trajectory and docking mechanism. Finally, a development roadmap will be outlined to identify future steps that will have to be taken.
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