ESA GNC Conference Papers Repository

Proba-3 is a high-precision formation flight mission, composed of two spacecraft ? the Coronagraph spacecraft (CSC) and the Occulter spacecraft (OSC) ? flying together in formation as a ?large rigid structure?. As part of nominal mission activities, the CSC executes impulsive manoeuvres using Monopropellant Thrusters. This paper describes the design of the Guidance, Navigation and Control software loop for impulsive manoeuvre execution by the CSC. The main contribution of this work is the design of the impulsive manoeuvre management functions for a small satellite that addresses the design constraints stemming from the spacecraft configuration, the hardware limitations and the thruster characteristics. The proposed design is validated in-the-loop using a high-fidelity simulator, implemented in MATLAB/Simulink. Results show that the proposed design can meet the impulsive manoeuvre performance requirements, while also demonstrating its limitations.