Autonomous celestial navigation for a deep space probe approaching a target planet based on ephemeris correction

Abstract

This article aims to propose an autonomous navigation method to simultaneously obtain precise position and velocity estimation of a deep space probe both with respect to Earth and with respect to the target, and estimate and correct the ephemeris uncertainty of the target that has a great influence on the navigation accuracy with respect to Earth. In this article, based on the analysis of the influences of ephemeris error on the state model, optical measurement, and the navigation accuracy, the ephemeris error is modeled. By taking the differences between the planned image and the actual image of the target as the ephemeris uncertainty measurement, the method is carried out by augmenting ephemeris uncertainty as system states, and is able to estimate and correct the ephemeris uncertainty of the target planet, and the position and velocity of the probe with respect to Earth and with respect to the target planet autonomously. The results show the influence of ephemeris error is removed from the orbital dynamics of the navigation system, and the proposed method can improve the accuracy with respect to Earth. The results demonstrate the proposed method autonomously yields superior performance with respect to Earth and with respect to the target.

Joint navigation performance of distant retrograde orbits and cislunar orbits via LiAISON considering dynamic and clock model errors

“…Table lists the filter parameters of the simulation. A previous study showed that position and velocity uncertainties of 1000 meters and 0.1 m/s, respectively, can be achieved in deep space using optical measurements. As such, these coarse values are used as the initial values for the simulation.…”

A Radio/Optical Integrated Navigation Method Based on Ephemeris Correction for an Interplanetary Probe to approach a Target Planet

“…The acceleration with respect to δ r , the changes in the target ephemeris, can be derived from the error propagation model of the target ephemeris (Ma et al, 2015) where , . It can be rewritten as follows: where is the acceleration with respect to the target ephemeris uncertainty, δ r is the target position error.…”

“…Thus the magnitude of the velocity typically has accurate prior knowledge. Based on those facts, the target ephemeris error is modelled as constant (Ma et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2013). Figure 8 shows the flow chart of the target ephemeris correction, and the specific steps are given as follows: …”

“…Uncertainty of the target ephemeris. The acceleration with respect to δr, the changes in the target ephemeris, can be derived from the error propagation model of the target ephemeris (Ma et al, 2015) δ…”

Celestial navigation in deep space exploration using spherical simplex unscented particle filter

“…In recent years, many countries have accelerated the pace of deep space probe, in which the accurate navigation of the deep space prober seems rather crucial, remaining to be an urgent problem to be solved [2]. Due to the complexity of deep space exploration, non-autonomous navigation may contribute to the highly calculated amount and poor performance, whereas autonomous navigation can adapt to the deep space environment easily and can alleviate the station burden on the ground [3].…”