Micro-Inspector Spacecraft: An Overview

Abstract

JPL has developed a small(<5 kg) spacecraft capable of visual inspection of a host vehicle with support from NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD). This paper describes the multi-mission utility of the Micro-Inspector and presents an overview of the spacecraft system and subsystem designs, description of a typical inspection mission scenario, and initial hardware demonstrations of key subsystems, partially integrated with each other in a Micro-Inspector testbed at JPL.