Automated optical navigation with application to Galileo

This paper presents an overview of an automated optical navigation (AON) system, a lower-cost, faster, earth-based stepping stone to onboard systems. AON provides estimation (orbit determination) and maneuver subsystems which are automatically linked to provide the fast response required by the Galileo mission, AON's first user. A real-time interactive executive schedules the subsystems to run concurrently or sequentially and enables interactive computer-graphics displays designed to speed evaluation and certification of navigation solutions. A compact trajectory integrator provides a favorable combination of speed and accuracy. Resident on a low-cost minicomputer and coded primarily in HAL/S, the NASA standard language for flight software, AON approaches a prototype for autonomous onboard navigation systems of the future.