3. Upon completion of the construction and deployment maneuvers, all the systems should be checked and tested. In this preliminary design phase, two operational scenarios are considered: 1. In the flight vector configuration, the Mir Station is rotated 90° to align its minimum axis of inertia along the local horizontal. The Progress vehicle is released, and the relative position between the Mir Station and the Progress chaser vehicle is controlled by the rendezvous sensors shown in Figure 10.2.3. The Mir station should stay in this position for the time necessary to carry out the beaming experiments. 2. In the gravity gradient stabilized orientation, the Mir station returns to its nominal orientation after releasing the Progress vehicle on the same orbit. In scenario 2 the demand on attitude control fuel would be minimal, however, there would be a need of a dedicated localization and pointing system. The advantage of scenario 1 is the permanent communication link between the two spacecraft, which allows for a high pointing accuracy and operational safety. That is why scenario 1 has been selected, however at a higher cost in fuel to maintain the Mir station in an unstable orientation. After finishing the experiment and evaluating the data the Progress spacecraft will perform a controlled reentry and burn up in the atmosphere. Figure 10.2.4 shows the preliminary flight operation sequence. Figure 10.2.3 Demonstration Scenario 10.2.3 System Level Design In this section the system elements are designed to estimate system performance, system budgets (mass, power and cost) and to reveal critical points in design, development and operations. Due to the limited amount of time the design studies were limited to a general system level. However, it is possible to conclude on the feasibility and to show some potential benefits of the proposed experiment. The following mission constraints on the system have been identified: 1. Payload mass and volume. The Progress cargo module has a maximum usable volume of 7 m3 and a maximum total payload mass of 1500 kg. As explained in the previous section, servicing Mir shall continue to be the main mission of the Progress spacecraft. Consequently the total mass and volume of the equipment for the power beaming experiment have to be significantly below the limits specified above.
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