METHOD TO CONTROL SPEED OF APPROACH OF SERVICE AND SERVICED SPACECRAFTS DURING THEIR CONNECTION Russian patent published in 2021 - IPC B64G3/00 B64G1/64 

FIELD: astronautics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to spacecraft (SC) movement control, for example, servicing (SSC) and serviced (SSC) during their docking. Control system comprises three radioisotope sources β-radiation, installed on servicing spacecraft, and detectors β-radiation, installed on serviced spacecraft. Sources β-radiation is placed into containers with covers absorbing electrons with energy of 1 MeV and opened during docking. Activity of β-resources is controlled depending on their distance to β-detectors by changing sources inside container, and activity level is selected so that count rate of pulse detectors from β-radiation exceeds speed of account from background ionizing radiations. Position of servicing spacecraft relative to serviced spacecraft is adjusted by balancing counting rate in β-detectors. Speed of approach of servicing spacecraft and serviced spacecraft to the moment of their joining is reduced as this count rate increases.

EFFECT: technical result is simple processing of signals detected by detectors and high reliability of the docking system as a whole.

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