Angles-Only Navigation in the Proximity of a Binary Asteroid System

Abstract

This paper investigates the possibility to navigate one or more spacecraft in the proximity of an asteroid binary system using only optical measurements. The approach proposed in this paper assumes only limited prior knowledge of the shape and orbital parameters of the two asteroids. In particular it is shown that the knowledge of the semi-major axis of the orbit of the secondary with respect to the primary is critical to guarantee a sufficient level of navigation accuracy. A method is proposed to allow for the inclusion of the orbital parameters of the secondary asteroid in the estimation process. It is shown that the inclusion of the estimation of the orbital parameters of the secondary provides the required information to allow navigating in the proximity of the binary system at the Lagrange point L4. The paper then demonstrates that the same method can be used to navigate a small formation of two spacecraft at L4 provided that intersatellite position and velocity vectors can be measured with sufficient accuracy. In this case the formation can be controlled even if the optical sensor on board one of the spacecraft partially fails.

Autonomous Navigation for Binary Asteroid Landing

“…Adding a second camera allows the navigation system to obtain LOS measurements of both asteroids without being limited by the FOV of a single camera. These measurements can then be used with a triangulation technique, as presented in [13].…”

“…The lack of an accurate shape model combined with difficult lighting conditions makes it very difficult to estimate the radial range from optical measurements. If multiple bodies can be observed by the camera(s), triangulation techniques can be used to provide range measurements [13,14]. A formation of spacecraft can solve the range ambiguity problem with cameras alone, if interspacecraft measurements are available [15].…”

“…This paper investigates a navigation solution for a binary asteroid system that exploits measurements of both asteroids in the camera frame, similar to [13], combined with a single LRF measurement that uses ellipsoid models for the asteroids in a manner similar to that in [5]. The navigation camera will provide LOS measurements, which are corrected for varying illumination conditions as is done in [17].…”

Combined optical line-of-sight and crosslink radiometric navigation for distributed deep-space systems

“…However, a major challenge in developing such systems is the need for accurate and reliable navigation capabilities, particularly in deep-space cruising scenarios where traditional navigation methods may be limited or ineffective 1 , while in close proximity operations around targets it has been widely investigated. In particular, autonomous navigation for DSS has been analyzed around asteroids, with some techniques capable of estimating unknown asteroid’s parameters together with the satellites’ state 2 , 3 . This challenge is further complicated when it comes to optimizing the mass and volume distributions, as well as operations planning, for miniaturized satellites, whose resources and capabilities are significantly reduced compared to those of larger spacecraft 4 .…”