Transition from Centroid-Based to Landmark-Based Optical Navigation During OSIRIS-REx Navigation Campaign at Asteroid Bennu
No abstract available
Adam, Coralie D.↗
Engineering topics
Palmer, Eric E.
Publications and source records attributed to Palmer, Eric E..
Lessons Learned from OSIRIS-Rex Autonomous Navigation Using Natural Feature Tracking
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (Osiris-REx) spacecraft is scheduled to launch in September, 2016 to embark on an asteroid sample return mission. It is expected to rendezvous with the asteroid, Bennu, navigate to the surface, collect a sample (July 20), and return the sample to Earth (September 23). The original mission design called for using one of two Flash Lidar units to provide autonomous navigation to the surface. Following Preliminary design and initial development of the Lidars, reliability issues with the hardware and test program prompted the project to begin development of an alternative navigation technique to be used as a backup to the Lidar. At the critical design review, Natural Feature Tracking (NFT) was added to the mission. NFT is an onboard optical navigation system that compares observed images to a set of asteroid terrain models which are rendered in real-time from a catalog stored in memory on the flight computer. Onboard knowledge of the spacecraft state is then updated by a Kalman filter using the measured residuals between the rendered reference images and the actual observed images. The asteroid terrain models used by NFT are built from a shape model generated from observations collected during earlier phases of the mission and include both terrain shape and albedo information about the asteroid surface. As a result, the success of NFT is highly dependent on selecting a set of topographic features that can be both identified during descent as well as reliably rendered using the shape model data available. During development, the OSIRIS-REx team faced significant challenges in developing a process conducive to robust operation. This was especially true for terrain models to be used as the spacecraft gets close to the asteroid and higher fidelity models are required for reliable image correlation. This paper will present some of the challenges and lessons learned from the development of the NFT system which includes not just the flight hardware and software but the development of the terrain models used to generate the onboard rendered images.
Navigation↗
Moon Search Algorithms for NASA's Dawn Mission to Asteroid Vesta
A moon or natural satellite is a celestial body that orbits a planetary body such as a planet, dwarf planet, or an asteroid. Scientists seek understanding the origin and evolution of our solar system by studying moons of these bodies. Additionally, searches for satellites of planetary bodies can be important to protect the safety of a spacecraft as it approaches or orbits a planetary body. If a satellite of a celestial body is found, the mass of that body can also be calculated once its orbit is determined. Ensuring the Dawn spacecraft's safety on its mission to the asteroid Vesta primarily motivated the work of Dawn's Satellite Working Group (SWG) in summer of 2011. Dawn mission scientists and engineers utilized various computational tools and techniques for Vesta's satellite search. The objectives of this paper are to 1) introduce the natural satellite search problem, 2) present the computational challenges, approaches, and tools used when addressing this problem, and 3) describe applications of various image processing and computational algorithms for performing satellite searches to the electronic imaging and computer science community. Furthermore, we hope that this communication would enable Dawn mission scientists to improve their satellite search algorithms and tools and be better prepared for performing the same investigation in 2015, when the spacecraft is scheduled to approach and orbit the dwarf planet Ceres.
planetary sciences↗
Evidence of Space Weathering Processes Across the Surface of Vesta
As NASA s Dawn spacecraft explores the surface of Vesta, it has become abundantly clear that Vesta is like no other planetary body visited to date. Dawn is collecting global data at increasingly higher spatial resolution during its one-year orbital mission. The bulk properties of Vesta have previously been linked to the HED meteorites through remote mineral characterization of its surface from Earth-based spectroscopy. A principal puzzle has been why Vesta exhibits relatively unweathered diagnostic optical features compared to other large asteroids. Is this due to the composition of this proto-planet or the space environment at Vesta? Alteration or weathering of materials in space normally develops as the products of several processes accumulate on the surface or in an evolving particulate regolith, transforming the bedrock into fragmental material with properties that may be measurably different from the original. Data from Dawn reveal that the regolith of Vesta is exceptionally diverse. Regional surface units are observed that have not been erased by weathering with time. Several morphologically-fresh craters have excavated bright, mafic-rich materials and exhibit bright ray systems. Some of the larger craters have surrounding subdued regions (often asymmetric) that are lower in albedo and relatively red-sloped in the visible while exhibiting weaker mafic signatures. Several other prominent craters have rim exposures containing very dark material and/or display a system of prominent dark rays. Most, but not all, dark areas associated with craters exhibit significantly lower spectral contrast, suggesting that either a Vesta lithology with an opaque component has been exposed locally or that the surface has been contaminated by a relatively dark impactor. Similarly, most, but not all, bright areas associated with craters exhibit enhanced mafic signatures compared to surroundings. On a regional scale, the large south polar structure and surrounding terrain exhibit relatively strong mafic absorption features, suggesting either a concentration of mafic materials or that materials exposed have been less affected by space weathering products. These combined initial observations indicate some space weathering processes are active in this part of the main asteroid belt, but are highly variable across the surface of Vesta. Such processes include: impacts from wandering asteroidal debris and local mixing at both micro- and macro-scales, irradiation by solar wind and galactic particles, production and distribution of impact breccias or melt products, and local movement of materials to gravity lows (gradual as well as sudden).
Pieters, Carle M.↗