Related papers: LunarNav: Crater-based Localization for Long-range…
Accurate positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) are crucial for upcoming lunar surface missions. Lunar satellite navigation systems are being developed, but lack coverage during early deployment phases. Hybrid lunar PNT combining…
This paper investigates the mission planning problem for spacecraft confronting orbital debris to achieve autonomous avoidance. Firstly, combined with the avoidance requirements, a closed-loop framework of autonomous avoidance for orbital…
The ExoMars mission of the program Aurora (ESA) aims to send a vehicle (Rover) on Mars in 2013. Beyond the technological aspects of the mission, the Rover will also carry scientific instruments for the analysis of Mars subsurface to search…
The Global Exploration Roadmap indicates the need for increased human exploration of under-sampled regions of our solar system in order to make new scientific discoveries. The high costs and dangers of sending humans deeper into our solar…
Lunar laser ranging (LLR) is used to conduct high-precision measurements of ranges between an observatory on Earth and a laser retro-reflector on the lunar surface. Over the years, LLR has benefited from a number of improvements both in…
Spacecraft anomaly detection is critical for mission safety, yet deploying sophisticated models on-board presents significant challenges due to hardware constraints. This paper investigates three approaches for spacecraft telemetry anomaly…
Impact crater cataloging is an important tool in the study of the geological history of planetary bodies in the Solar System, including dating of surface features and geologic mapping of surface processes. Catalogs of impact craters have…
In this letter, the localization of terrestrial nodes when unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used as base stations is investigated. Particularly, a novel localization scenario based on received signal strength (RSS) from terrestrial nodes…
Space missions generate massive volumes of high-resolution orbital and surface imagery that far exceed the capacity for manual inspection. Detecting rare phenomena is scientifically critical, yet traditional supervised learning struggles…
This paper presents a terrestrial GNSS-based orbit and clock estimation framework for lunar navigation satellites. To enable high-precision estimation under the low-observability conditions encountered at lunar distances, we develop a…
The escalating accumulation of orbital debris threatens the sustainability of space operations, necessitating active removal solutions that overcome the limitations of current fuel-dependent methods. To address this, this study introduces a…
The increasingly complex and diverse planetary exploration environment requires more adaptable and flexible rover navigation strategy. In this study, we propose a VLM-empowered multi-mode system to achieve efficient while safe autonomous…
This paper presents a self-supervised framework for learning to detect robust keypoints for odometry estimation and metric localisation in radar. By embedding a differentiable point-based motion estimator inside our architecture, we learn…
Kick-starting the space economy requires identification of critical resources that can lower the cost of space transport, sustain logistic bases and communication relay networks between major nodes in the network. One important challenge…
Autonomous navigation in offroad environments has been extensively studied in the robotics field. However, navigation in covert situations where an autonomous vehicle needs to remain hidden from outside observers remains an underexplored…
This paper presents almanac and ephemeris message representation for lunar navigation satellites supporting the Lunar Augmented Navigation System (LANS). The proposed method combines osculating orbital elements, Chebyshev polynomials, and…
In early 2022, Intuitive Machines' NOVA-C Lander will touch down on the lunar surface becoming the first commercial endeavor to visit a celestial body. NOVA-C will deliver six payloads to the lunar surface with various scientific and…
Ground penetrating radar mounted on micro aerial vehicle (MAV) is a promising tool to assist humanitarian landmine clearance. However, the quality of synthetic aperture radar images depends on accurate and precise motion estimation of the…
Accurate localisation in planetary robotics enables the advanced autonomy required to support the increased scale and scope of future missions. The successes of the Ingenuity helicopter and multiple planetary orbiters lay the groundwork for…
This paper presents an adaptive observer-based navigation strategy for spacecraft in Circular Relative Orbit (CRO) scenarios, addressing challenges in proximity operations like formation flight and uncooperative target inspection. The…