DEVELOPMENT AND TEST RESULTS OF SINPLEX, A COMPACT NAVIGATOR FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION

Kurzfassung

SINPLEX is an innovative, very compact, multipurpose and self-standing highly integrated suite of instruments designed for Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) applications. The GNC applications for which SINPLEX has been designed for is the support throughout various navigation phases, from space travel to rendez-vous and landing, to spacecrafts and their robotic landers. The system can be tailored to also fit applications such as Active Debris Removal (ADR). SINPLEX in its full redundant configuration exhibits a mass of 4.8 kg, a volume of 170 x 210 x 200 mm3, and a power consumption of 32 W. The instrument is packed with redundant sets of Star Trackers (STR), Navigation Cameras (NAVCam), Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and Laser Altimeters (LA). The two Navigation Cameras have a partly overlapping field of view to enable stereoscopic observations. The combination of these sensors provides reliable, robust and high frequency information on the relative position and attitude to enable spacecraft timely and well-informed attitude and orbit actuation. SINPLEX is a research and development project funded by the European Commission (7th Framework Programme, project no. 284433) and has been developed by a consortium of European entities, comprising of DLR from Germany, TNO, cosine and SystematIC from The Netherlands and ÅAC Microtec AB from Sweden.