Autonomous Navigation and Control
Abstract
The Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) is capable of achieving positioning accuracies of 100 m. to 1.5 km. with straightforward modifications to existing Earth sensing hardware. Because it uses hardware that would be on board the spacecraft for attitude determination, the additional cost for achieving fully autonomous navigation will be quite low. The modifications will allow the sensor to measure the size of the Earth and sense the measurements can be made with a single sensor, including independent redundant observations, many of the principal bias terms can be eliminated or greatly reduced. Additional work is needed to fully develop the cost versus performance of the autonomous navigation model. No new technology is required, although some calibration or bias determination techniques may need to be developed to accommodate the evolving sensor accuracy. The proposed system could have a significant impact on ground operations costs, mission definition and design, survivability, and the potential development of very low cost fully autonomous spacecraft.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA205898
Entities
People
- Frank M. Tai
- Peter D. Noerdlinger