ABSTRACT
An interactive proximity operations planning system, which allows on-site planning of fuel-efficient, multi-burn maneuvers in a potential multi-spacecraft environment has been developed and tested. Though this display system most directly assists planning by providing visual feedback to aid visualization of the trajectories and constraints, its most significant features include (1) an “inverse dynamics” algorithm that removes control nonlinearities facing the operator and (2) a trajectory planning technique that reduces the order of control and creates, through a “geometric spread-sheet,” the illusion of an inertially stable environment. This synthetic environment provides the user with control of relevant static and dynamic properties of way-points during small orbital changes allowing independent solutions to the normally coupled problems of orbital maneuvering. An experiment has been carried out in which experienced operators were required to plan a trajectory to retrieve an object accidentally separated from a dual-keel space station. The time required to plan these maneuvers was found to be predicted by the direction of the separation thrust and did not depend on the point of separation from the space station.
