Ground Optical Navigation for the Stardust-Next Mission to Comet 9P/TEMPEL1

Ground-based optical navigation (OpNav) using pictures taken by the Naviga-tion camera on the Stardust spacecraft provided the target-relative information needed to design maneuvers during its approach to comet Tempel 1. Hardware problems, limited downlink bandwidth, and changes in the flight profile affected the OpNav picture schedule, sometimes in near-real time. The Stardust naviga-tion camera and attitude control presented challenges. Picture-processing techniques were developed during approach that included background estimation, co-addition, and co-registration. These techniques, along with adaptive picture scheduling, successfully addressed the challenges.