EO-1 formation flying using AutoConTM

In the era of faster, better, and cheaper, satellite on-orbit operations is a continued area of opportunity for reducing mission costs and enabling new science collection through automation. When a ground operation is supporting multiple spacecraft in a formation, the need for automation to perform mission design and maneuver planning operations is magnified; without it, some missions are cost prohibitive. A partnership of AI Solutions, Inc. and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration´s (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has developed a maneuver planning automation tool called AutoCon^TM NASA is using AutoCon^TM to validate and demonstrate the automation of maneuver planning for the formation flying of the Earth Observing -1 (EO-1) satellite with the Landsat-7 satellite. Originally developed as a ground system tool, AutoCon^TM has been scaled to fit on-board the EO-1 flight computer. The flight version of AutoCon^TM plans maneuvers based on formation flying algorithms developed by GSFC, JPL, and other industry partners. In its fully autonomous mode, an AutoCon^TM planned maneuver will be executed on-board the satellite without intervention from the ground. This paper describes how AutoCon^TM automates maneuver planning for the formation flying constraints of the EO-1 mission. AutoCon^TM was modified in a number of ways to automate the maneuver planning on-board the satellite. This paper describes how the interface and functionality of AutoCon^TM were implemented to support the on-board system, including the implementation of a GPS data smoother to produce accurate spacecraft states for maneuver planning. The use of AutoCon^TM as a completely autonomous onboard system will be implemented in phases. This paper presents the modes built into the system that will allow incrementally phasing in the autonomous functions. A number of safeguards have been designed in both AutoCon^TM and the interfacing systems to alleviate the potential of mission-impacting anomalies from the on-board autonomous system