GEORYDER PROJECT - A NEW ERA FOR ORBITAL TRANSPORT

The GEORyder project, led by Infinite Orbits and funded by the European Commission through the Horizon Europe 2023 program, represents a breakthrough in satellite operations and orbital transport. The initiative aims to leverage Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTVs) as a solution to place payloads in their geostationary (GEO) orbits by performing proximity operations on highly elliptical orbits, such as Geostationary Transfer Orbits (GTO).

With the shift to smaller satellite platforms with limited fuel capacity, finding alternative methods to reach GEO without compromising efficiency has become essential. GEORyder addresses this challenge by using OTVs capable of capturing payloads deployed in GTO by commercial launchers, transporting them to their GEO positions, and then returning to GTO for in-orbit refueling to prepare for successive operations.

Mauro Massari, Pierluigi Di Lizia, Michele Maestrini, Niccolò Faraco, Luigi De Maria, Annachiara Ippolito, and Luca Giorcelli of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology at the Politecnico di Milano will contribute to mission analysis and the development of advanced algorithms for vehicle guidance, navigation, and control (GNC). Their work focuses on precise maneuvering strategies, vision-based navigation, and robust control to facilitate rendezvous and docking operations.

The GEORyder project is poised to be a milestone in the space sector, promising more sustainable transport and efficient management of orbiting infrastructure, opening new avenues for the future of space-borne infrastructure.