Ground Demonstration of Synchronized Formation Rotations for Precision, Multi-Spacecraft Interferometers

Abstract

This paper reports the ground demonstration of precision synchronized formation rotations with better than 6 arcmin/5 cm performance in the Formation Control Testbed (FCT). The FCT currently consists of two, five degree-of-freedom, air bearing-levitated robots. The sixth degree-of-freedom, vertical translation, is being added in November 2007. Each robot has a suite of flight-like avionics and actuators, including a star tracker, fiber-optic gyroscopes, reaction wheels, cold-gas thrusters, inter-robot communication, and on-board computers that run the Formation and Attitude Control System software.