Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T04:18:11.441Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Autonomous Navigation of Mars Probes by Combining Optical Data of Viewing Martian Moons and SST Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2015

Pengbin Ma ,
Fanghua Jiang  and
Hexi Baoyin
Pengbin Ma
Affiliation:
(School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China) (State Key Laboratory of Astronautic Dynamics, Xi'an, China) (E-mail: [email protected])
Fanghua Jiang
Affiliation:
(School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China)
Hexi Baoyin
Affiliation:
(School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Autonomous navigation has become a key technology for deep space exploration missions. Phobos and Deimos, the two natural moons of Mars, are important optical navigation information sources available for Mars missions. However, during the phase of the probe orbiting close to Mars, the ephemeris bias and the difference between the barycentre and the centre of brightness of a Martian moon will result in low navigation accuracy. On the other hand, Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (SST) can achieve convenient and high accuracy observation for autonomous navigation. However, this cannot apply for a Mars mission during the Mars orbit phase only by SST data because of a rank defect problem of the Jacobian matrix. To improve the autonomous navigation accuracy of Mars probes, this paper presents a new autonomous navigation method that combines SST radio data provided by two probes and optical measurement by viewing the natural Martian moons. Two sequential orbit determination algorithms, an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) are compared. Simulation results show this method can obtain high autonomous navigation accuracy during the probe's Mars Orbit phase.

Keywords

Autonomous navigationMars probeOrbit determinationDeep space exploration.
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 68 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 1019 - 1040
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bhaskaran, S., Desai, S.D., Dumont, P.J., Kennedy, B.M., Null, G.W., Owen, W.M., Riedel, J.E., Synnott, S.P. and Werner, R.A. (1998). Orbit Determination Performance Evaluation of the Deep Space 1 Autonomous Navigation System. AIAA/AAS Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, Monterey, USA.Google Scholar
Bhaskaran, S., Riedel, J.E., Synnott, S.P. and Wang, T.C. (2000). The Deep Space 1 autonomous navigation system – A post-flight analysis. AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Denver, AIAA-2000–3935.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chausson, L. and Delavault, S. (2003). Optical Navigation Performance during Interplanetary Cruise. Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Space Flight Dynamics, Moscow, Russia.Google Scholar
Chory, M.A., Homan, D.P. and LeMay, J.L. (1986). Satellite Autonomous Navigation–Status and History. Proceedings of the IEEE Position, Location, and Navigation Symposium, Inst. of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York.Google Scholar
Christian, J. and Lightsey, G. (2010). Integrated Performance of an Autonomous Optical Navigation System for Space Exploration. AIAA SPACE 2010 Conference and Exposition, Anaheim, California.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duxbury, T.C., Born, G. H. and Jerath, N. (1974). Viewing Phobos and Deimos for navigating Mariner 9. Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets 11, 215–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicks, K.D. and Wiesel, W.E. (1992). Autonomous Orbit Determination System for Earth Satellites. Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, 15, 562–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, K. and Born, G. (2007). Autonomous Interplanetary Orbit Determination Using Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking. Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, 30, 679–686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hog, E., Fabricius, C., Makarov, V.V., Urban, S., Corbin, T., Wycoff, G., Bastian, U., Schwekendiek, P. and Wicenec, A. (2000). The Tycho-2 Catalogue of the 2·5 Million Brightest Stars. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 355(2), 27–30.Google Scholar
Julier, S.J. and Uhlmann, J.K. (1997). New extension of the Kalman filter to nonlinear systems. Signal Processing, Sensor Fusion, and Target Recognition VI, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series, 3068, 182–193.Google Scholar
Julier, S.J. and Uhlmann, J.K. (2004). Unscented filtering and nonlinear estimation. Proceedings of the IEEE, 92(3), 401–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalman, R.E. (1960). A New Approach to Linear Filtering and Prediction Problems. Journal of Basic Engineering, 82, 35–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalman, R.E. and Bucy, R. S. (1961). New Results in Linear Filtering and Prediction Theory. Journal of Basic Engineering, 83, 95–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lainey, V., Dehant, V. and Patzold, M. (2007). First numerical ephemerides of the Martian moons. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 465, 1075–1084.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lightsey, E.G., Mogensen, A.E., Burkhart, P.D., Ely, T.A. and Duncan, C. (2008). Real-Time Navigation for Mars Missions Using the Mars Network. Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 45, 519–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Y. and Liu, L. (2001). Orbit Determination Using Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking Data. Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1, 281–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ma, X., Fang, J. and Ning, X. (2013). An overview of the autonomous navigation for a gravity-assist interplanetary spacecraft. Progress in Aerospace Sciences, 63, 56–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mark, L. and Psiaki, M.L. (2011). Absolute Orbit and Gravity Determination Using Relative Position Measurements Between Two Satellites. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 34, 1285–1297.Google Scholar
Mastrodemos, N., Kubitschek, D. G. and Synnott, S. P. (2005). Autonomous navigation for the deep impact mission encounter with comet Tempel 1. Space Science Reviews, 117, 95–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paluszek, M., Mueller, J. and Littman, M. (2010). An overview of the autonomous navigation for a gravity-assist interplanetary spacecraft. AIAA Infotech@Aerospace, Atlanta, Georgia.Google Scholar
Psiaki, M.L. (1999). Autonomous Low-Earth-Orbit Determination from Magnetometer and Sun Sensor Data. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 22, 296–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stastny, N.B. and Gellert, D.K. (2008). Autonomous optical navigation at Jupiter: A linear covariance analysis. Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 45, 290–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar