Autonomous Spacecraft Navigation Using Stars, Pulsars, and Planets
Abstract
Autonomous navigation capabilities for spacecraft are useful for decreasing operational costs, increasing the scope of missions, and increasing the robustness of spacecraft. This dissertation aims to present and fully explain multiple autonomous navigation methods that may be used by spacecraft orbiting Earth or on interplanetary (and potentially interstellar) missions.
A brief history of each navigational technique will be given, with a summary of state-of-the-art developments, as well as results from implementing the navigational technique in hardware or software simulations. The results of a simulated Orion mission traversing cis-lunar space while implementing optical navigation techniques will be shown along with a detailed explanation of the simulation architecture. An analysis of how existing navigational techniques can be improved or superseded by pulsar-based navigation methods will also be presented. Finally, conclusions and recommendations for future work will be made.
Subject
Autonomous NavigationComputer Vision
Pulsar Astronomy
Estimation
Spacecraft Navigation
Celestial Navigation
Citation
Borissov, Stoian (2020). Autonomous Spacecraft Navigation Using Stars, Pulsars, and Planets. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /191564.