Design and Verification of China Space Station Module Automatic Transfer Scheme

The construction of China’s Tiangong space station was completed in 2022, and officially entered the phase of application and development. According to the mission requirement that the direction of China Space Station laboratory module to the sky or the earth should remain unchanged before and after transfer, a flat transfer scheme is proposed in this paper, and a module automatic transfer implementation scheme based on flat-transfer mechanism is designed. During the module transfer, a passive gravity gradient stable attitude is taken by space station for flight, which enable the space station stabilize its own direction when it stops active attitude control. By designing and selecting appropriate transfer mission window, it can ensure unblocked track telemetry control link and sufficient sunlight during the whole transfer process, improving the mission security and reliability. Through ground tests and orbital laboratory module transfer mission implementation, the scheme of space station module flat transfer method has been comprehensively verified.