Improved guidance algorithm for remote autonomous rendezvous

This paper presents an improved guidance algorithm for remote autonomous rendezvous. The relative motion dynamics model is established to describe the relative motion of the two spacecrafts. Followed the dynamics model, an approach of the orbit prediction is introduced, which incorporates the effect of J2 perturbation. The improved guidance algorithm introduces two methods to optimize the transfer time and the necessary initial velocity respectively. The numerical simulation shows that the improved method can make the terminal error smaller for an active vehicle in the vicinity to a passive one from a long distance.