Autonomous target acquisition techniques

Target acquisition is often needed in a deep space mission where the detector on board the space vehicle must be able to perform the decision making process in acquiring the target. That is, the system for target acquisition must be autonomous. This paper presents several autonomous target acquisition techniques, applicable to deep space mission, for detecting stationary and moving targets. These techniques are useful for sensors such as radar, star tracker and television since the target must be found before it can be tracked. A minimum signal-to-noise ratio can be specified for successful acquisition of target.