Reliable one-time docking for small spacecraft.
The Web Docking System (WDS) simplifies the docking operation by employing novel mechanisms, allowing sensing and computation to become simpler and more robust. This innovative approach performs capture first, then draws the spacecraft together for alignment, thus accommodating large multidimensional angular and positional misalignment upon approach.
The incoming active or inactive spacecraft is equipped with a telescopic capture release probe that, when extended, hooks (captures) a large web deployed on the target spacecraft. After capture confirmation, the peripheral hold of the web is released and the tethered web is pulled into a cone with the incoming spacecraft probe securely captured in the web. As the incoming spacecraft is dragged down the cone, it is first aligned and then preloaded with the target. This ensures that the incoming and target spacecraft are actively engaging each other prior to hard docking and electrical/fluid coupling.
Honeybee Robotics developed the WDS for NASA’s ST4/Champollion mission, a comet sample return mission.
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