Capture and berthing experiment of a massive object using ETS-VII's space robot - World's first on-orbit satellite capture experiment by space robot system

Abstract

This paper reports results of a capture and berthing experiment of a free-floating massive object in space using an automated space robot system of Japanese ETSVII satellite. The purposes of this experiment are 1) system evaluation of automated capture of massive object and 2) observation of 6 degrees-of-freedom dynamics during capture process while attitude control systems of satellites is turned off. Those results can be reference data for numerical simulations or on-ground test beds for capture and berthing experiments for future onorbit service systems.