An overview of the state estimation for space non-cooperative target with multi-spacecraft cooperative observation

Large debris such as failed satellites are generally in a tumbling state and cannot provide auxiliary measurement markers, which is called a space non-cooperative tumbling targets. Visual measurement is the core premise of large debris capture and removal in orbit. The traditional measurement method based on a single observation spacecraft is difficult to ensure a good observation state for a long time. Multiple spacecrafts carry visual cameras respectively to observe the target simultaneously from different directions, which can effectively deal with the complex interference in the measurement process. Based on this, this paper summarizes the research progress of space non-cooperative tumbling target state estimation through multi-spacecraft cooperative observation, summarizes from the aspects of concept development of multi-spacecraft cooperative observation, feasibility and advantage analysis of multi-spacecraft cooperative observation, multi-camera system self-calibration, multi-view cooperative observation, state estimation of space non-cooperative tumbling target, measurement error analysis and optimization. Finally, according to the analysis of the research status, the key problems of multi-spacecraft cooperative observation such as camera configuration, space domain, baseline and network are discussed, and the recommendations for the further development are presented.