Mission Design and Trajectory Analysis for Inspection of a Host Spacecraft by a Microsatellite

The trajectory analysis and mission design for inspection of a host spacecraft by a microsatellite is motivated by the current developments in designing and building prototypes of a microsatellite inspector vehicle. A mission in which a host spacecraft is in orbit about Earth is covered in this paper. A toolset has been created, composed of both natural and forced motion trajectories. The toolset evaluates an inspection mission concept based on figures of merit over four primary operational modes: deployment mode, global inspection mode, point inspection mode, and disposal mode. Merit figures investigated include the quality of inspection through resolution, lighting conditions, viewing angles, total inspection coverage, tracking spacecraft constraints and consumables regarding telecommunications, spacecraft power, and fuel expenditure. This paper presents the design of the inspection mission design toolset and summarizes the performance of a baseline inspection mission concept of a host in Earth orbit.