In the future, satellites will have to demonstrate compliance with debris mitigation requirements, covering re-entry or parking graveyard orbits and passivation. Nevertheless, during the mission, a failure could occur without any possibility to manoeuvre the satellite and achieving its compliance to the Space Debris Mitigation requirements. Therefore to anticipate the need to use ADR for deorbiting (or reorbiting) the satellite, it is interesting to evaluate the implication of adapting the satellites and launcher upper stage to support a future ADR mission.

The goal of this study is two-fold. First, to identify and develop a DA- based high-order filter for relative pose estimation. The application considered is the rendezvous with an uncooperative target, modelled after ESA's e.deorbit mission. Secondly, the DA algorithms are implemented on hardware mimicking the limited computational power available in space. The resulting implementation is tested in a processor in the loop (PIL) test-bench using the approach phase of the chaser to the uncooperative target to be estimated.

The overall rationale for such a study has been driven by two factors. Firstly the unexpected on-orbit failure of the Envisat mission in 2012, has now created a specific and immediate ‘debris problem’ for ESA. Secondly, the number of and density of damaging space debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is predicted to rise in the future, which has the potential to negatively constrain future space operations for all operators and users.