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Orbit Transfers for Dawn's Vesta Operations : Navigation and Mission Design Experience
Dawn, a mission belonging to NASA's Discovery Program, was launched on September 27, 2007 to explore main belt asteroids in order to yield insights into important questions about the formation and evolution of the solar system. From July of 2011 to August of 2012, the Dawn spacecraft successfully returned valuable science data, collected during the four planned mapping orbits at its first target asteroid, Vesta. Each mapping orbit was designed to enable a different set of scientific observations. Such a mission would have been impossible without the low thrust ion propulsion system (IPS). Maneuvering a spacecraft using only the IPS for the transfers between the mapping orbits posed many technical challenges to Dawn's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Each transfer needs a robust plan that accounts for uncertainties in maneuver execution, orbit determination, and physical characteristics of Vesta. This paper discusses the mission design and navigational experience during Dawn's Vesta operations. Topics include requirements and constraints from Dawn's science and spacecraft teams, orbit determination and maneuver design and building process for transfers, developing timelines for thrust sequence build cycles, and the process of scheduling very demanding coverage with ground antennae at NASA's Deep Space Network.
Solar electric propulsion for terminal flight to rendezvous with comets and asteroids
A guidance algorithm that provides precise rendezvous in the deterministic case while requiring only relative state information is developed. A navigation scheme employing only onboard relative measurements is built around a Kalman filter set in measurement coordinates. The overall guidance and navigation procedure is evaluated in the face of measurement errors by a detailed numerical simulation. Results indicate that onboard guidance and navigation for the terminal phase of rendezvous is possible with reasonable limits on measurement errors.
Initial Galileo propulsion system in-flight characterization
The Galilee RetroPropulsion Module (RPM) has performed excellently throughout the first three years of mission operations. The RPM is a state-of-the-art, pressure-fed, bipropellant propulsion system, provided to NASA by Germany. Due to efficient navigation, propellant margin has substantially increased since launch, enabling extensive contingency maneuvering and the second asteroid flyby while maintaining the confidence level for successfully completing the orbital tour of the planet Jupiter, beginning in 1995. The RPM has responded very well to the challenges brought about by the attempts to deploy the Galileo High Gain Antenna. No thruster thermal instabilities have been observed during maneuvers through the end of 1992; however, lateral thruster performance shifts have been nonnegligible and remain unexplained. Nearly all Galileo thrusters are exceeding ground performance test levels by 1-7 percent.
Visual Odometry for Autonomous Deep-Space Navigation
Visual Odometry fills two critical needs shared by all future exploration architectures considered by NASA: Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking (AR&D), and autonomous navigation during loss of comm. To do this, a camera is combined with cutting-edge algorithms (called Visual Odometry) into a unit that provides accurate relative pose between the camera and the object in the imagery. Recent simulation analyses have demonstrated the ability of this new technology to reliably, accurately, and quickly compute a relative pose. This project advances this technology by both preparing the system to process flight imagery and creating an activity to capture said imagery. This technology can provide a pioneering optical navigation platform capable of supporting a wide variety of future missions scenarios: deep space rendezvous, asteroid exploration, loss-of-comm.
Digital terrain mapping by the OSIRIS-REx mission
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security–Regolith Explorer mission will return a sample to Earth from asteroid (101955) Bennu. Digital terrain models (DTMs) of the asteroid, and products enabled by them, are key to understanding the origin and evolution of the asteroid, providing geological and geophysical context for the sample, maximizing the amount of sample returned, navigating the spacecraft, and ensuring the safety of the spacecraft during sampling. The mission has two approaches for producing these DTMs: a camera-based approach and a lidar-based approach. We provide an overview of the methods used for these two approaches and how they fit into the originally planned mission. We also discuss a summary of tests using these plans to evaluate the expected performance of the DTMs and describe the data products derived from them.
Dawn Statistical Maneuver Design for Vesta Operations
In July of 2011 the Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to begin orbital operations at Vesta, a large main-belt asteroid. Dawn is a NASA Discovery mission that uses solar-electric low-thrust ion propulsion for both interplanetary cruise and orbital operations. Navigating between the Dawn project's four targeted science orbits at Vesta requires a plan that accounts for uncertainties not only in thrust execution, orbit determination, and other spacecraft forces, but also large uncertainties in characteristics of Vesta - such as the asteroid's gravity field and pole orientation. Accommodating these uncertainties requires strategic use of low-thrust maneuvers reserved for statistical trajectory corrections. This paper describes the placement and evaluation of low-thrust statistical maneuvers during two key phases of the Vesta mission along with a discussion of the tools, constraints, and methods used to plan those maneuvers.
Small body simulations for navigation approach and landing
Small body simulations have played a significant role in the planning and development of many recent missions to asteroids and comets.
Dawn's final mission at Ceres: navigation and mission design experience
On Oct. 31st, 2018, the Dawn spacecraft completed its space journey covering more than 11 years including exploration of Vesta and Ceres, two protoplanets in the main asteroid belt. After successfully completing its prime mission at the dwarf planet Ceres, the Dawn mission was extended twice to pursue new scientific objectives. The second extended mission at Ceres, and the final mission for Dawn, presented a series of challenges that were new to the experienced and accomplished Dawn navigation team. This paper discusses mission design and navigational experiences and challenges during Dawn’s final transfer and orbit at Ceres. Topics include reference orbit design of the final science orbit, mission design and planning for the transfer, periapsis targeting over a surface feature, and analysis for planetary protection requirements.
OSIRIS-REx Proximity Operations and Navigation Performance at (101955) Bennu
The NASA Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft began close proximity operations at the small (500-mdiameter) B-type asteroid (101955) Bennu in December 2018 and concluded in May 2021.Hundreds of grams of pristine surface regolith were collected on October 20, 2020, when the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully executed the Touch and Go (TAG) sample collection sequence. The spacecraft touched down within 1 meter of the targeted site on the surface of Bennu. TAG was the culmination of over 2 years of navigation performance refinement as a result of extraordinary interagency teamwork between the Flight Dynamics System (FDS),science and spacecraft teams while in close proximity to Bennu. This paper will discuss the navigation processes, planning and performance during the proximity operations at Bennu.
Asteroids and Comets Outreach Compilation
Contents include various different animations in the area of Asteroids and Comets. Titles of the short animated clips are: STARDUST Mission; Asteroid Castallia Impact Simulation; Castallia, Toutatis and the Earth; Simulation Asteroid Encounter with Earth; Nanorover Technology Task; Near Earth Asteroid Tracking; Champollian Anchor Tests; Early Views of Comets; Exploration of Small Bodies; Ulysses Resource Material from ESA; Ulysses Cometary Plasma Tail Animation; and various discussions on the Hale-Bopp Comet. Animation of the following are seen: the Stardust aerogel collector grid collecting cometary dust particles, comet and interstellar dust analyzer, Wiper-shield and dust flux monitor, a navigation camera, and the return of the sample to Earth; a comparison of the rotation of the Earth to the Castallia and Tautatis Asteroids; an animated land on Tautatis and the view of the motion of the sky from its surface; an Asteroid collision with the Earth; the USAF Station in Hawaii; close-up views of asteroids; automatic drilling of the Moon; exploding Cosmic Particles; and the dropping off of the plasma tail of a comet as it travels near the sun.
OSIRIS-REx Proximity Operations and Navigation Performanceat (101955) Bennu
The NASA Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft began close proximity operations at the small (500-m diameter) B-type asteroid (101955) Bennu in December 2018 and concluded in May 2021. Hundreds of grams of pristine surface regolith were collected on October 20, 2020, when the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully executed the Touch and Go (TAG) sample collection sequence. The spacecraft touched down within 1 meter of the targeted site on the surface of Bennu. TAG was the culmination of over 2 years of navigation performance refinement as a result of extraordinary interagency teamwork between the Flight Dynamics System (FDS), science and spacecraft teams while in close proximity to Bennu. This paper will discuss the navigation processes, planning and performance during the proximity operations at Bennu.
Near Earth Asteroid Scout - Mission Update
After its deployment from NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout mission will travel to and image an asteroid during a close flyby using an 86m^2 solar sail as its primary propulsion. Solar sails are large, mirror-like structures made of a lightweight material that reflects sunlight to propel the spacecraft. The continuous solar photon pressure provides thrust with no need for the heavy, expendable propellants used by conventional chemical and electric propulsion systems. Developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the NEA Scout is based on the industry-standard CubeSat form factor. The spacecraft measures 11 cm x 24 cm x 36 cm and weighs less than 14 kilograms. Following deployment from the Space Launch System (SLS), the solar sail will deploy, and the spacecraft will begin its 2.0 – 2.5-year journey. About one month before the asteroid flyby, NEA Scout will search for the target and start its Approach Phase using a combination of radio tracking and optical navigation and perform a relatively slow flyby (10-20 m/s) of the target. A summary of the mission, sailcraft, mission design, and its first several months of deep space operation will be described.
Microtextured metals for stray-light suppression in the Clementine startracker
Anodized blacks for suppressing stray light in optical systems can now be replaced by microscopically textured metal surfaces. An application of these black surfaces to the Clementine star-tracker navigational system, which will be launched in early 1994 to examine the Moon, en route to intercept an asteroid, is detailed. Rugged black surfaces with Lambertian BRDF less than 10(exp -2) srad(sup -1) are critical for suppressing stray light in the star-tracker optical train. Previously available materials spall under launch vibrations to contaminate mirrors and lenses. Microtextured aluminum is nearly as dark, but much less fragile. It is made by differential ion beam sputtering, which generates light-trapping pores and cones slightly smaller than the wavelength to be absorbed. This leaves a sturdy but light-absorbing surface that can survive challenging conditions without generating debris or contaminants. Both seeded ion beams and plasma immersion (from ECR plasmas) extraction can produce these microscopic textures without fragile interfaces. Process parameters control feature size, spacing, and optical effects (THR, BRDF). Both broad and narrow absorption bands can be engineered with tuning for specific wavelengths and applications. Examples are presented characterized by FTIR in reflection librators (0.95 normal emissivity), heat rejection, and enhanced nucleate boiling.
Navigation for the new millennium: Autonomous navigation for Deep Space 1
The autonomous optical navigation system technology for the Deep Space 1 (DS1) mission is reported on. The DS1 navigation system will be the first to use autonomous navigation in deep space. The systems tasks are to: perform interplanetary cruise orbit determination using images of distant asteroids; control and maintain the orbit of the spacecraft with an ion propulsion system and conventional thrusters, and perform late knowledge updates of target position during close flybys in order to facilitate high quality data return from asteroid MaAuliffe and comet West-Kohoutek-Ikemura. To accomplish these tasks, the following functions are required: picture planning; image processing; dynamical modeling and integration; planetary ephemeris and star catalog handling; orbit determination; data filtering and estimation; maneuver estimation, and spacecraft ephemeris updating. These systems and functions are described and preliminary performance data are presented.
Comparing Pre-Launch Assumptions to In-Flight Navigation Performance of OSIRIS-REx
The Sample Return Capsule (SRC) onboard the NASA Origins, Spectral Inter-pretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx)spacecraft is currently carrying samples of the B-type asteroid Bennu for safe re-turn to Earth at the Utah Test and Training Range on September 24, 2023. These samples were collected during the Touch And Go (TAG) sampling event on October 20, 2020, when the spacecraft contacted the surface for a few seconds at a location less than 1 meter from the target. The unprecedented navigation performance achieved during that event was the culmination of experience gained during two years of cruise and two years of increasingly challenging operation sat Bennu. As we had hoped, the proximity navigation performance at Bennu exceeded pre-launch analysis. This paper will compare the navigation performance through the proximity operation phases to our pre-launch analysis and will quantify how refinements of the small force models governing the spacecraft motion near Bennu considerably improved the down-track state predictions leading up to the successful TAG event. It was evident to the team and to expert peer reviewers during the design phase that exquisite model fidelity and aggressive operational concepts, which challenged and advanced the state of the art for deep space proximity operations, would be required to meet the mission’s objectives. This paper summarizes the superlative achievements of the team in rising to and overcoming these challenges.
Orbit Transfers for Dawn's Ceres Operations: Navigation and Mission Design Experience at a Dwarf Planet
Dawn, a mission belonging to NASA’s Discovery Program, was launched on September 27, 2007 to explore two objects in the main asteroid belt in order to yield insights into important questions about the formation and evolution of the solar system. Successfully completing all mission objectives at Vesta, Dawn arrived at dwarf planet Ceres in March 2015 and continued its journey to a series of four near circular polar science orbits. Dawn became the first mission to orbit around two extraterrestrial targets; such a mission would have been impossible without the low thrust ion propulsion system (IPS). Maneuvering a spacecraft using only the IPS for the transfers between the mapping orbits posed many technical challenges to Dawn’s flight team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Failure of the second reaction wheel assembly, shortly before leaving Vesta, added another challenge for Dawn’s flight team. This paper discusses the mission design and navigational experience and challenges during Dawn’s Ceres operations.
Early Navigation Performance of the OSIRIS-REx Approach to Bennu
The New Frontiers-class OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) mission is the first American endeavor to return a sample from an asteroid. In preparation for retrieving the sample, OSIRIS-REx is conducting a campaign of challenging proximity-operations maneuvers and scientific observations, bringing the spacecraft closer and closer to the surface of near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. Ultimately, the spacecraft will enter a 900-meter-radius orbit about Bennu and conduct a series of reconnaissance flybys of candidate sample sites before being guided into contact with the surface for the Touch and Go sample collection event. Between August and December 2018, the OSIRIS-REx team acquired the first optical observations of Bennu and used them for navigation. We conducted a series of maneuvers with the main engine, Trajectory Correction Maneuver, and Attitude Control System thruster sets to slow the OSIRIS-REx approach to Bennu and achieve rendezvous on December 3, 2018. This paper describes the trajectory design, navigation conops, and key navigation results from the Approach phase of the OSIRIS-REx mission.