The PRISMA story : Achievements and final escapades

The Prisma mission is divided into four phases; the nominal mission, the extended mission, the external parties’ mission and the final mission. The milestones switching from one phase to the next are unique occasions that have brought the mission forward, whereof some were planned before the launch of the satellites and some were adaptations along with the development of the mission timeline. In particular, the current execution of the final phase contains Mango alone operation, which means Mango has abandoned Tango and has started a journey on its own for transfer to and rendezvous with a still to be decided space debris object. The rendezvous will be performed based upon TLE and angular measurements from the on-board camera and after the rendezvous a visual inspection and characterization of the object will be performed, utilizing the on board high resolution PR camera. This paper explains these milestones and the turn of events leading up to the events that were not planned. It also describes the past mission phases in a broader sense and the current final phase in more detail.

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