A guidance strategy for rendezvous and docking to the space station in the Earth-Moon NRHO orbit

With the development of space technology, it is possible to build a space station in Earth-Moon space as a transit for Earth-Moon round-trip and entering in the deep space. Rendezvous and docking is one of the key technologies for building an Earth-Moon space station. A guidance strategy for rendezvous and docking from the Earth orbit to the space station in the Earth-Moon NRHO orbit is proposed in this paper, which is suitable for engineering applications. Firstly, the rendezvous and docking process is divided into three sections, i.e., the large-range orbit transfer section, farrange guidance section, and close-range approaching section. The suitable terminal of large-range orbit transfer is selected according to the eigenvalue of NRHO orbit state transition matrix. The two-impulse guidance method based on the relative motion equation in the three-body problem is adopted for the far-range guidance section. The impulse time and amplitude are solved with the optimization algorithm. The linear constant three-body relative motion equation is proposed for the close-range approaching section, and the rendezvous and docking is completed by a two-stage linear approximation. Finally, a simulation analysis is carried out, and the simulation results show that the adopted dynamics equations and the designed guidance law are effective, and the three flight phases are naturally connected to accomplish the rendezvous and docking mission from the Earth orbit to the space station on the Earth-Moon NRHO.