Development of the Optical Deep-Space Instrument for Navigation (ODIN)

The Optical Deep-space Instrument for Navigation (ODIN) is a customizable, multiple camera, multiple field-of-view (FOV) software and hardware sensor package. The instrument and software design are intended to make optical navigation (OpNav) methods more widely available to small satellite missions. Towards this goal, ODIN was designed to tackle multiple barriers that smaller missions face when considering OpNav. The flight software, built in core Flight System (cFS), is largely agnostic to camera selection and placement, such that the base software can accommodate mission specific designs The flight software also has many autonomous functionalities such as target determination, attitude estimation, and horizon-based position estimation, while still offering the option for manual modes to ease mission operation constraints. The general physical architecture assumed for ODIN is multiple fisheye cameras to monitor the majority of the celestial sphere and identify OpNav imaging targets, and at least two narrow angle cameras to collect images for simultaneous attitude and position estimation. To demonstrate the ODIN flight software and one potential ODIN instrument configuration at a reasonable size for a small satellite mission, a 2U prototype with two very wide-angle cameras and two narrow-angle cameras was designed, constructed, and tested on the ground. Currently, ODIN is in its second year of development under NASA’s University SmallSat Technology Partnership (USTP) program and has already passed multiple testing benchmarks, with a final goal of advancing the technology to TRL 6 (validation in a relevant environment). This paper captures the work done over this period to develop ODIN, including the algorithms used, the design of the flight software, and the design of the prototype and its use in testing. Some preliminary results are discussed, as well as the lessons learned and plans for further testing.