ESA GNC Conference Papers Repository

HARVD ambitious goal is to answer new generation missions needs: large structures assembly, servicing and sample return missions involve at least two vehicles and require increasingly autonomous rendezvous. HARVD system is designed to cover the largest panel of missions and to meet stringent requirements derived from the complexity of such missions. This is translated into generic and autonomous requirements on the rendezvous GNC system. The autonomy as well as the genericity relies on the modular architecture. The AMM, based on a state automaton manages the mission and configure the GNC system according to the different mission phases. The vision-based navigation is able to support all the mission phases, from the detection up to the contact, while providing the AMM a situation analysis capability.