PRACTICAL RENDEZVOUS SCENARIO FOR TRANSPORTATION MISSIONS TO CIS-LUNAR STATION IN EARTH–MOON L2 HALO ORBIT Naomi Murakami(1), Satoshi Ueda(1), Toshinori Ikenaga(1), Maki Maeda(1), Toru Yamamoto(1), and Hitoshi Ikeda(1) (1)Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 2-1-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8505, Japan (1)+81-50-3362-3725,
[email protected] Abstract: Plans to establish a new international space station in the vicinity of the Moon have drawn attention as a potential gateway for future missions. Assuming that such a station will be constructed, various rendezvous missions will be performed, including logistics flight and crew transportation missions. In the low Earth orbit (LEO), many logistics flight missions have been performed, such as the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) and the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) missions for the International Space Station (ISS), and rendezvous operation technology has been well established. However, in cis-lunar orbits, the dynamics of relative motion are different from those in LEOs, and the GPS- based navigation scheme, which is the key navigation method in LEO rendezvous missions, cannot be applied. Hence, a different type of rendezvous scheme is necessary for application to rendezvous missions in cis-lunar orbits. In this study, we suggest a practical rendezvous scenario for logistics flight missions to the future cis-lunar space station in the Earth–Moon L2 halo orbit and clarify the problems and requirements regarding guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) for cis-lunar rendezvous. Keywords: Rendezvous, Cis-lunar station, Earth–Moon L2 halo, GN&C. 1. Introduction The updated Global Exploration Roadmap delivered by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) outlines strategies for human and robotic exploration to the Moon, asteroids, and Mars [1].