Testing and Extension of Onboard Maneuver Planning Algorithms

The goal of this IRAD is to develop a flight software (FSW) implementation of a maneuver planning algorithm to include in Goddard’s software for autonomous navigation, guidance, and control, called autoNGC. The primary focus of this early-stage innovation is in-house development of maneuver planning FSW, and a secondary focus is cooperating with other NASA centers to assess the potential for incorporating their maneuver planning FSW tools within autoNGC. Developing an autonomous maneuver planning capability for autoNGC meets several key technology needs, including enabling autonomy for position, navigation, and timing (PNT) networks or other distributed systems missions (DSM).

This research effort will equip NASA's autoNGC software with enhanced maneuver planning capabilities that can lead to future NASA missions being more autonomous. Innovation is required to transform the more advanced maneuver planning algorithms typically used on the ground into software that can reliably perform autonomously on-orbit with limited computational resources. Ultimately, the autonomous maneuver planning enabled by this work can offer substantial improvements in cost and science return compared to the traditional maneuver planning approach which requires ground operators to remain in-the-loop.

Autonomous maneuver planning supports several key technology need areas that will aid NASA in its pursuit of upcoming targets and opportunities. This IRAD creates resilient autonomous onboard techniques and strategies that support the development of autonomous PNT capabilities. Such PNT abilities are desired for the development of communications networks that support lunar operations and for highly elliptical orbit (HEO), geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO), libration point, planetary, and small body missions that require greater autonomy. Furthermore, autonomous maneuver planning can be enabling of DSM, particularly if these missions are scaled beyond the cislunar regime where light-time delays increase the scheduling impact of keeping ground operators in-the-loop. Even apart from light-time delays some events of scientific interest are highly transient, e.g., plumes at Enceladus, and can only be obtained via an autonomous spacecraft.

Finally, this work will equip engineers with the skills needed to understand software at multiple NASA centers that is created for the purpose of autonomous maneuver planning, and which could be incorporated into the autoNGC architecture. Cross-center collaboration is necessary to ensure the unique capabilities of each center are utilized.

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