DEVICE FOR CONTROLLING RELATIVE POSITION(S) BY POWER MEASUREMENTS, FOR A SPACECRAFT OF A GROUP OF SPACECRAFT IN FORMATION

摘要

A control device (D), for a spacecraft of a group of spacecraft which is intended to move according to a chosen formation, comprises i) an assembly of at least three send/receive antennas (A1-A3) installed on at least three faces of different orientations of its spacecraft and suitable for sending/receiving RF signals, ii) first measurement means (M1) responsible for determining the power of the signals received by each of the antennas (A1-A3) and for delivering power sets each associated with one of the other spacecraft of the group, iii) storage means (BD) responsible for storing cartographic data sets each representative of normalized powers of the signals received by each of the antennas (A1-A3) as a function of chosen directions of transmission, and iv) processing means (MT) responsible for comparing each power set delivered by the first measurement means (M1) with the stored cartographic data sets, so as to estimate each direction of transmission of the signals sent by the other spacecraft of the group with respect to a reference system tied to their spacecraft.