interacting elements. The main role was played by the general principle of providing for androgynous docking designs, which had been proposed earlier in the creation of the docking device of the Soyuz-Salyut complex. The principle was that of inverse symmetry of the position of interacting and joining elements. To test the structures and confirm their compatibility, a large body of experimental work was done. Testing was done in both countries, both jointly and separately. In the final stage, an Earth-based control docking of flight models of the docking assemblies was done. Four years of tense work was crowned by two successful dockings in space, where each of the androgynous assemblies played active and passive roles, one after the other. Overall, the successful execution of the Apollo-Soyuz project assisted the further progress of docking technology. The exchange of experience and ideas, the concentration of substantial efforts in a relatively short period of time, and to some degree, the competitive nature of the work, were very useful. The content of the book, like the methods of planning, analysis, and testing presented here, is based on factual material on the docking devices created up until present in the USSR and USA: their description, and basic specifications are presented in Chapter 1. Here too we examine general information on the docking devices, technical requirements, classification, structural analysis, etc. A great deal of the interacting mechanisms and linked elements are concentrated in a limited area of the docking assembly. Thus, there are substantial difficulties in designing the principal design of the device as a whole and the general configuration of the docking assemblies. The complexity of the operations to be performed, the expanse of the kinematics, and the multi-functionality complicates the selection and planning of the principal designs of the main mechanisms. The external configuration, the position and size of the controlling elements determine the interaction after the first contact. The selection is mainly determined by the initial docking conditions provided by the approach systems of the spacecraft in the final portion of the approach. Development, analysis, and classification of docking devices and their main mechanisms made it possible to determine general and detailed recommendations for the choice of designs and individual parameters of the design. These issues are discussed in Chapter 2.
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