Related papers: Autonomous Asteroid Characterization Through Nanos…
This paper presents a novel methodology to control spacecraft swarms about singleasteroids with arbitrary gravitational potential coefficients. This approach enablesthe use of small, autonomous swarm spacecraft in conjunction with a…
This paper presents a new algorithm for autonomous multitarget tracking of resident space objects using optical angles-only measurements from a spaceborne observer. To enable autonomous angles-only navigation of spacecraft swarms, an…
Planetary bodies such as asteroids, comets, and planetary moons are high-value science targets as they hold important information about the formation and evolution of our solar system. However, due to their low-gravity, variable sizes and…
The exploration of small bodies in the Solar System is a high priority planetary science. Asteroids, comets, and planetary moons yield important information about the evolution of the Solar System. Additionally, they could provide resources…
This paper proposes a Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) architecture for planetary rovers targeting the conditions of upcoming Mars exploration missions such as Mars 2020 and the Sample Fetching Rover (SFR). The navigation…
We propose AstroSLAM, a standalone vision-based solution for autonomous online navigation around an unknown target small celestial body. AstroSLAM is predicated on the formulation of the SLAM problem as an incrementally growing factor…
Neural network models have a number of hyperparameters that must be chosen along with their architecture. This can be a heavy burden on a novice user, choosing which architecture and what values to assign to parameters. In most cases,…
The increasing number of space missions may overwhelm ground support infrastructure, prompting the need for autonomous deep-space guidance, navigation, and control (GN\&C) systems. These systems offer sustainable and cost-effective…
Exploration of asteroids and comets can give insight into the origins of the solar system and can be instrumental in planetary defence and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Asteroids, due to their low gravity are a challenging target for…
Autonomous navigation for nano-scale unmanned aerial vehicles (nano-UAVs) is governed by extreme Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) constraints (with the weight < 50 g and sub-100 mW onboard processor), distinguishing it fundamentally from…
The accelerating deployment of spacecraft in orbit have generated interest in on-orbit servicing (OOS), inspection of spacecraft, and active debris removal (ADR). Such missions require precise rendezvous and proximity operations in the…
Understanding the physics of small bodies such as asteroids, comets, and planetary moons will help us understand the formation of the solar system, and also provide us with resources for a future space economy. Due to these reasons,…
Understanding the characteristics of swarming autonomous agents is critical for defense and security applications. This article presents a study on using supervised neural network time series classification (NN TSC) to predict key…
This paper presents the development and evaluation of an optimization-based autonomous trajectory planning algorithm for the asteroid reconnaissance phase of a deep-space exploration mission. The reconnaissance phase is a low-altitude flyby…
We present here the design, architecture, and first data release for the Solar System Notification Alert Processing System (SNAPS). SNAPS is a Solar System broker that ingests alert data from all-sky surveys. At present, we ingest data from…
The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is rapidly increasing in applications ranging from surveillance and first-aid missions to industrial automation involving cooperation with other machines or humans. To maximize area coverage and…
The climate crisis we are facing calls for significant improvements in our understanding of natural phenomena, with clouds being identified as a dominant source of uncertainty. To this end, the emerging field of 3D computed cloud tomography…
Artificial neural networks (ANN) have been successfully used in the last years to identify patterns in astronomical images. The use of ANN in the field of asteroid dynamics has been, however, so far somewhat limited. In this work we used…
This paper investigates a swarm-based concept in which a number of nanosatellites, referred to as NanoTugs, are deployed by a mother spacecraft to capture and cooperatively stabilize and de-orbit space debris. The study focuses on the…
We study the surface composition of asteroids with visible and/or infrared spectroscopy. For example, asteroid taxonomy is based on the spectral features or multiple color indices in visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The composition of…