Prisma Formation Flying Demonstrator: Overview and Conclusions from the Nominal Mission

Abstract

The PRISMA in-orbit testbed was launched on June 15, 2010 to demonstrate strategies and technologies for formation flying and rendezvous. OHB Sweden (OHB-SE) is the prime contractor for the project which is funded by the Swedish National Space Board with additional support from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the French National Space Center (CNES), and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). In August 2011, PRISMA completed its nominal mission and during the fall of 2011, several additional activities have been performed under a mission extension program. The mission qualifies a series of sensor and actuator systems including navigation using GPS, Vision Based and RF technology as well as a propulsion system based on environmentally friendly propellant technology. The mission also includes a series of GNC experiments using this equipment in closed loop. Separate experiments are implemented by OHB-SE, DLR, and CNES and the paper provides an overview and conclusions from the nominal mission flight results from these experiments.