Optical-Based Kinematic Positioning for Deep-Space Navigation

NASA’s Deep Space 1 mission demonstrated that a spacecraft can be navigated
autonomously during deep-space cruise operations using only images of distant
asteroids as measurements. This paper derives an approximation of the position estimate
accuracy that can be achieved with this technique based on the assumption
of multiple, simultaneous line-of-sight measurements. This achievable accuracy
is computed for locations across the solar system, which can be used to estimate
cruise navigation performance as a function of spacecraft trajectory. It is shown
that a on-board optical navigation system can achieve kinematic position estimate
accuracies of better than 100 km throughout the inner solar system with a highperformance
camera and from many hundred to several thousand kilometers with
a low-end camera. Beyond the main-asteroid belt, the feasibilty of this approach
suffers due to lack of targets. A case-study implementation of this approach for
the upcoming InSight mission to Mars is also presented.