Spadex Mission: Successful Demonstration of Second Docking and Power Transfer
Second successful docking with power transfer marks major milestone in satellite servicing capabilities
Nellore: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully demonstrated the docking of the two Spadex satellites for the second time on April 20. Subsequently, power transfer from SDX 02 to SDX 01 satellite, and vice versa, was also accomplished the next day.
The experiment involved operating a heater element in one of the satellites through power from the other satellite. The duration of power transfer was 4 minutes, and the performance of the satellites was as expected.
In the second docking attempt, the docking was completed with full autonomy from an inter-satellite distance of 15m till docking. In the first docking attempt, an additional hold point was manually exercised at an inter-satellite distance of 3m.
The second docking experiment was preceded by detailed ground simulations and on-orbit trials incorporating the experience gained from first docking & undocking experiments, thereby providing confidence for the second docking demonstration.
The demonstration of the fully autonomous second docking, along with power transfer, marks the completion of an important milestone in the Spadex mission.