Design principles for the development of space technology maturation laboratories aboard the International Space Station

This thesis formulates seven design principles for the development of laboratories which utilize the International Space Station (ISS) to demonstrate the maturation of space technologies. The principles are derived from the lessons learned from more than two decades of space technology research at the MIT Space Systems Laboratory and the existence of unique resources aboard the ISS. The thesis provides scientists with a design framework for new laboratories and an evaluation framework to responds to a call by the National Research Council to institutionalize science activities aboard the ISS. Experience from previous missions and research on the resources available at the ISS led to the development of the SPHERES Laboratory for Distributed Satellite Systems (DSS), which constitutes the experimental part of the thesis. SPHERES allows tests in a representative, risk-tolerant environment aboard the ISS to demonstrate metrology, control, and autonomy algorithms for DSS. The implementation of ground-based and ISS-based facilities permits incremental technology maturation by enabling iterative research; algorithms can mature through multiple research cycles with increasing complexity. The SPHERES Guest Scientist Program supports research by multiple scientists: since the Spring of 2000 SPHERES has enabled research on formation flight, communications requirements, mass properties identification, autonomous rendezvous and docking, and tethered formation flight.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Saenz Otero, Alvar, 1975-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David W. Miller.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32469

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32469