Preliminary Analysis of Visual Navigation Performance in Close Formation Flying
Growing interest has been lately put into proximity operations with non-cooperative targets, such as on-orbit servicing and refuelling, which both requires the the system to be completely autonomous. Autonomy is achieved through a robust GNC structure and the navigation system is of primary importance for this purpose. The paper investigates a scenario where a spacecraft (chaser) approaches a target satellite on an elliptical, sun-synchronous orbit.