EUROPEAN RENDEZVOUS AND DOCKING SYSTEM

This paper first describes the major design drivers and the key features of the European RendezVous and Docking System Concept. Stemming from technology activities led by the European Space Agency (ESA) with European Industry and National Space Agencies since the beginning of the eighties, the concept has been developed and integrated in the frame of an ESA RVD System Pre-Development Programme initiated at ESTEC in 1989, with MATRA as main contractor. The objective is to verify the overall concept and the main elements within a RVD Proof of Concept Programme in order to provide an early proof of validity to the user projects, the first of which will be the Hermes manned space shuttle. The selected mission scenarii, the RVD functions addressed and the overall system architecture are described. The results of supporting safety, performance and operations analyses are presented. The paper further presents the verification objectives and the major results obtained in the RVD System Pre-Development Programme. This verification approach involves hardware breadboards, software prototypes, development of test facilities in four main development areas: test of RV sensors on a 6 d.o.f. kinematic test facility, test of a docking mechanism front-end mock-up on the docking dynamics test facility, closed-loop test of a prototype RV control software, test of man-in-the-loop concept involving both supervisory control and manual control modes.