American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1 SATELLITE FORMATION FLYING USING AN INNOVATIVE AUTONOMOUS CONTROL SYSTEM (AUTOCON) ENVIRONMENT Frank Bauer*, John Bristow, David Folta* , Kathy Hartman*, and David Quinn* Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 Jonathan P. How † Stanford University Stanford, California 94305 Abstract This paper describes the formation of a partnership between two competing technologies with very different approaches to the problem of enhanced formation flying (EFF) on the New Millennium Program (NMP) Earth Orbiter (EO)-1 mission. This includes a brief description of the two approaches that were independently proposed by the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)/Stanford University and JPL teams. The actual mission combines these two approaches within a single autonomous control architecture called AutoCon™. The software is designed so that a control mode switch can be set by the ground flight operations team to invoke either EFF algorithm. The advantage of this approach is that both EFF technologies can be incorporated onboard EO-1 within the AutoCon™ framework. In addition, the details of each proposed algorithm need not be divulged provided that the algorithms conform to the specifications of AutoCon™. Forming a partnership between two competing technologies represents a significant programmatic challenge. This paper discusses the programmatic issues and several of the technologies that have been developed to perform the EFF mission. In the process, several recommendations are provided that should streamline similar partnerships on future NMP missions. Introduction The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s vision for its space and Earth science programs in the 21 st century includes frequent, affordable missions using many small low-cost, highly autonomous spacecraft to explore our solar system, observe the universe and study our planet. New technologies and improved ways to partner with industry, academia, and other government agencies are critical to the future success of NASA. The NMP, established by NASA, uses Integrated Product Development Teams (IPDT) with various members from NASA field centers, industry, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and other government agencies. The IPDTs identify, develop, and flight validate key advanced technologies and capabilities needed to enable future NASA space and Earth science missions. The Earth Orbiter (EO)-1 mission is the first of three NMP Earth-orbiting missions that emphasize the validation of revolutionary remote sensing spacecraft and operations technologies. The technologies flown on EO-1 are designed to reduce the cost of follow-on missions and ensure continuity of future Landsat data. The goal of EO-1 is to validate the four category I technologies within the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) instrument, and as many of the eight category II/III technologies as possible during the first year of operations. Category I represents essential mission technologies; category II technologies provide an essential mission function; and category III technologies enhance mission performance. The ALI incorporates innovative approaches to future land imaging, including multispectral and hyperspectral imaging techniques, and provides approximately a seven-fold reduction in mass, power, and volume relative to predecessor Landsat instruments. EO-1 will provide 100-200 paired scene _______________________________________________ *AIAA senior member † AIAA member Copyright 1997 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. No copyright is asserted in the United States under Title 17, U.S. Code. The U.S. Government has a royalty-free license to exercise all rights under the copyright claimed herein for government purposes. All other rights are reserved by the copyright owner.