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Completed TRL 3 (started at 1, targeting 6)
Orbit determination for interplanetary missions primarily relies on radiometric tracking through the Deep Space Network (DSN). While these measurements are powerful and accurate, they also require scheduled use of the DSN which must be shared with other ongoing missions. In this IRAD, we seek to implement a previously developed autonomous celestial navigation (CelNav) capability as part of the auto-navigation, guidance, and control (autoNGC) software suite. This will serve as an alternative autonomous navigation capability to reduce reliance on the DSN for deep space navigation.
Onboard CelNav is both a supporting and enabling technology. It supports by helping to reduce reliance on the already oversubscribed DSN, freeing up resources for other missions requiring bandwidth for downlinking scientific data. It can enable for mission where the light time delay between the spacecraft and the Earth is too long to support time critical operations. It can further enable for smaller missions which would not be able to be prioritized for significant DSN time, and thus would require an alternative navigation technique while in deep space.
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