Extensible Hook System for Rendesvouz and Docking of a Cubesat Swarm

The use of cubesat swarms is being proposed for different missions where cooperation between satellites is required. Commonly, the cube swarm requires formation flight and even rendezvous and docking, which are very challenging tasks since they required more energy and the use of advanced guidance, navigation and control techniques. In this paper, we propose the use of an extensible hook system to mitigate these drawbacks,i.e. it allows to save fuel and reduce the system complexity by including techniques that have been previously demonstrated on Earth. This system is based on a scissor boom structure, which could reach up to five meters for a 4U dimension, including three degrees of freedom to place the end effector at any pose within the system workspace. We simulated the dynamic behaviour of a cubesat with the proposed system, demonstrating the required power for a 16U cubesat equipped with one extensible hook system is considered acceptable according to the current state of the art actuators.