Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “INTERPLANETARY NAVIGATION”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Precision X-band Doppler and ranging navigation for current and future Mars exploration missions

This paper describes a navigation error covariance analysis of two scenarios derived from the Mars Observer mission and the planned Mars Environmental SURvey (MESUR) Pathfinder mission, respectively. The analysis was performed to establish the potential navigational performance of the X-band tracking system in NASA's Deep Space Network, and to evaluate the sensitivity of the predicted performance to variations in the quantity of data acquired, the ground system error modeling assumptions, and data reduction schemes. The simulated data arcs used in the analysis are representative of the actual data arcs that will be used to predict the aim point for the Mars orbit insertion maneuver, in the case of Mars Observer, and the interplanetary trajectory aim point corresponding to the target Mars landing site in the case of MESUR Pathfinder. The results indicate that with a suitable sequential data reduction scheme and accurate calibrations of instrumentation, transmission media, and platform model parameters, navigation accuracies of 5 to 15 km (1 sigma) can be achieved, equivalent to 15 to 40 nrad in geocentric angle uncertainty.

Estefan, Jeffrey A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Navigating the Magellan Aerobrake

The Magellan spacecraft has been aerobraked into a 197 x 541 km near-circular orbit around Venus from which it is conducting a high-resolution gravity mapping mission. This was the first interplanetary aerobrake maneuver and involved flying the spacecraft through the upper reaches of the Venusian atmosphere 730 times over a 70 day period.

Magellan aerobrake Venusian↗
NASA NTRS1986

Research and technology

Activities of the Goddard Space Flight Center are described in the areas of planets and interplanetary media, comets, astronomy and high-energy physics, solar physics, atmospheres, terrestrial physics, ocean science, sensors and space technology, techniques, user space data systems, space communications and navigation, and system and software engineering. Flight projects and mission definition studies are presented, and institutional technology is described.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2004

An Integrated Vision-Based System for Spacecraft Attitude and Topology Determination for Formation Flight Missions

With the space industry's increasing focus upon multi-spacecraft formation flight missions, the ability to precisely determine system topology and the orientation of member spacecraft relative to both inertial space and each other is becoming a critical design requirement. Topology determination in satellite systems has traditionally made use of GPS or ground uplink position data for low Earth orbits, or, alternatively, inter-satellite ranging between all formation pairs. While these techniques work, they are not ideal for extension to interplanetary missions or to large fleets of decentralized, mixed-function spacecraft. The Vision-Based Attitude and Formation Determination System (VBAFDS) represents a novel solution to both the navigation and topology determination problems with an integrated approach that combines a miniature star tracker with a suite of robust processing algorithms. By combining a single range measurement with vision data to resolve complete system topology, the VBAFDS design represents a simple, resource-efficient solution that is not constrained to certain Earth orbits or formation geometries. In this paper, analysis and design of the VBAFDS integrated guidance, navigation and control (GN&C) technology will be discussed, including hardware requirements, algorithm development, and simulation results in the context of potential mission applications.

Rogers, Aaron↗
NASA NTRS2017

Deep-Space Navigation Using Optical Communications Systems

Optical communication links using lasers can potentially deliver data rates much higher than those possible using radio frequencies. If optical communications equipment is going to be carried by future deep-space missions, this equipment, with some adaptations, could also be used to perform tracking for trajectory determination. A number of experiments have been performed in Earth orbit and in lunar orbit using optical data links, while other missions have demonstrated optical links over interplanetary distances. Laser ranging using corner cube retroreflectors is a well-established technique that has been used for orbit determination of Earth orbiting spacecraft, for geodesy, and for lunar research, achieving centimeter-level precisions, but it is not a practical method for deep-space distances. There are two main optical tracking types that are being considered for deep-space navigation. The first is optical astrometry of spacecraft: a telescope on the ground images the laser beam coming from a spacecraft against the star background, determining its plane-of-sky position as seen from the observatory. This type will greatly benefit from the release of the high-accuracy star catalog produced by ESA’s Gaia mission, allowing for the generation of plane-of-sky measurements with an accuracy similar to that obtained today using VLBI tracking techniques. The second is optical ranging using active optical systems at both ends of the link, requiring a more careful design of the spacecraft optical communications system. One of the advantages of using optical frequencies is that they are not affected by charged particles in the signal path the way that radio frequencies are, eliminating solar plasma and ionospheric effects from the light-time calculation and the corresponding noise. On the other hand, clouds would preclude any type of optical communication, and daytime light scattering precludes astrometric measurements. This paper presents our analysis so far of the performance that could be achieved using optical data types in a number of deep-space scenarios. One of the questions that we are trying to answer is whether spacecraft equipped with optical communications terminals would also need to carry radio-frequency equipment for navigational purposes. We also want to understand how accurately we will be able to navigate spacecraft in different mission types and phases, and what would be the constraints, advantages, and disadvantages of using optical communications systems for deep-space navigation.

Karimi, Reza↗
NASA NTRS1985

Engineering challenges of in-flight spacecraft - Voyager: A case study

Some of the engineering problems encountered during the post-launch phase of interplanetary space missions are described, with emphasis given to the Voyager missions. The major in-flight modifications in Voyager spacecraft's operational capability with respect to communications, payload, and navigation systems are discussed. Attention is given to the instances of 'failure workaround' including: recovery from a failed receiver, recovery from a seized scan platform actuator, and modifications to the Attitude Articulation and Control Subsystem (AACS) software during the Saturn encounter. A detailed line drawing of the Voyager spacecraft is provided.

Jones, C. P.↗
NASA NTRS1964

Unmanned Spacecraft of the United States

In 1957 the first earth satellite ushered in the age of space flight. Since that historic event, space exploration has become a major national objective of both the United States and the Soviet Union. These two nations have attempted a total of well over 200 space flight missions. Other nations are also participating in various degrees in what will continue to grow as a cooperative world effort. In the years since 1957, man has successfully flown in earth orbit. He has initiated programs to land on the moon and return. He has made dramatic applications of earth satellites in meteorology, communications, navigation, and geodesy. A host of scientific satellites.continue to advance understanding of the earth's environment, the sun, and the stars. Automated spacecraft are being flown to the moon, deep into interplanetary space, and to the near planets, Mars and Venus. One of the most exciting technological aspects of space exploration has been the development of automated spacecraft. Most of the scientific exploration of space and the useful applications of space flight thus far have been made possible by automated spacecraft. Development of these spacecraft and their many complex subsystems is setting the pace today for many branches of science and technology. Guidance, computer, attitude control, power, telecommunication, instrumentation, and structural subsystems are being subjected to new standards of light weight, high efficiency, extreme accuracy, and unsurpassed reliability and quality. This publication reviews the automated spacecraft which have been developed and flown, or which are under active development in the United States by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. From the facts and statistics contained herein, certain observations can be made and certain conclusions drawn.

Cortright, Edgar M.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission Design and Navigation for Low Energy Escape

This paper describes the evolution of the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission design and navigation. Specifically, the mission has been conceived as (1) a hydrazine bus on a ballistic trajectory, (2) a low-thrust bus launching from a geostationary transfer orbit and spiraling to escape, and (3) a lowthrust bus that launches with a small positive escape energy. This paper discusses the rationale in favor of the third concept, low energy escape, and describes the key mission design and navigation studies. In an effort to be compatible with an unknown co-manifest partner, the trajectory design must account for a large range of launch energies, orientations, and dates. The navigation approach must account for sensitive regions in the trajectory and plan for both low-thrust and chemical phases of flight. These findings are relevant to other missions pursuing low-cost interplanetary rideshare concepts.

Grebow, Daniel↗
NASA NTRS1973

Ballistic mode Mercury orbiter mission opportunity handbook

Significant payloads in Mercury orbit can be achieved through use of high-thrust, chemical propulsion systems on ballistic trajectories. Interplanetary trajectory characteristics are presented, for Venus swingbys to Mercury, were multiple revolutions about the sun are allowed on each leg to provide low energy mission in 1977, 1980, 1985 and 1988. Guidance and navigation results are shown for each opportunity. Additionally, the use of midcourse maneuvers and multiple Venus swingbys are explored as means of further reducing the energy requirements.

Hollenbeck, G. R.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Solar Eruptions: Coronal Mass Ejections and Flares

This lecture introduces the topic of Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares, collectively known as solar eruptions. During solar eruptions, the released energy flows out from the Sun in the form of magnetized plasma and electromagnetic radiation. The electromagnetic radiation suddenly increases the ionization content of the ionosphere, thus impacting communication and navigation systems. Flares can be eruptive or confined. Eruptive flares accompany CMEs, while confined flares hav~ only electromagnetic signature. CMEs can drive MHD shocks that accelerate charged particles to very high energies in the interplanetary space, which pose radiation hazard to astronauts and space systems. CMEs heading in the direction of Earth arrive in about two days and impact Earth's magnetosphere, producing geomagnetic storms. The magnetic storms result in a number of effects including induced curr~nts that can disrupt power grids, railroads, and underground pipelines

Gopalswamy, Nat↗
NASA NTRS2021

Maneuver Design Implementation and Verification for the Mars 2020 Mission

On February 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater on Mars, transported by the Mars 2020 spacecraft on a nearly seven-month journey to the Red Planet. The execution of three propulsive maneuvers during the interplanetary cruise phase was required to remove the launch-injection bias and deliver the spacecraft to the Mars atmospheric entry point. This paper focuses on the maneuver implementation and verification process between the navigation and spacecraft teams. Additionally, this paper discusses the execution error models that were used to determine maneuver performance and delivery accuracy at the atmospheric entry interface point.

Kruizinga, Gerhard↗
NASA NTRS0202

Rest architecture for link analysis tools portal

A web portal is under development to improve overall services provided by NASA networks that support near-­‐Earth missions. These networks are managed by Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Program of NASA and include the following: Deep Space Network (DSN), Space Network (SN), and Near-­‐Earth Network (NEN). DSN is a network of antennas located in three longitudinally separated sites and supports interplanetary spacecraft missions, radio science, and radar astronomy observations. SN consists of a number of geostationary Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) and associated ground stations. NEN consists of both NASA-­‐owned ground stations and those owned by international, commercial, and academic partners. This study investigates different web access techniques for mission users to use link analysis tools that aid in operating NASA networks. We developed a web portal prototype following principles of Representational state transfer (REST) architecture to leverage scalability, independent deployment of tools, and generic interfaces. In REST architectures, requests and responses between clients and servers are built around transferring representations of resources that can be addressed in memory. We demonstrate the feasibility of using REST architecture to facilitate web-­‐service transactions via web-­‐portal.

Lee, Carlyn-­‐Ann↗
NASA NTRS2017

Optimetrics for Precise Navigation

Optimetrics for Precise Navigation will be implemented on existing optical communication links. The ranging and Doppler measurements are conducted over communication data frame and clock. The measurement accuracy is two orders of magnitude better than TDRSS. It also has other advantages of: The high optical carrier frequency enables: (1) Immunity from ionosphere and interplanetary Plasma noise floor, which is a performance limitation for RF tracking; and (2) High antenna gain reduces terminal size and volume, enables high precision tracking in Cubesat, and in deep space smallsat. High Optical Pointing Precision provides: (a) spacecraft orientation, (b) Minimal additional hardware to implement Precise Optimetrics over optical comm link; and (c) Continuous optical carrier phase measurement will enable the system presented here to accept future optical frequency standard with much higher clock accuracy.

Precise↗
NASA NTRS2012

Nano-Satellite Secondary Spacecraft on Deep Space Missions

NanoSat technology has opened Earth orbit to extremely low-cost science missions through a common interface that provides greater launch accessibility. They have also been used on interplanetary missions, but these missions have used one-off components and architectures so that the return on investment has been limited. A natural question is the role that CubeSat-derived NanoSats could play to increase the science return of deep space missions. We do not consider single instrument nano-satellites as likely to complete entire Discovery-class missions alone,but believe that nano-satellites could augment larger missions to significantly increase science return. The key advantages offered by these mini-spacecrafts over previous planetary probes is the common availability of advanced subsystems that open the door to a large variety of science experiments, including new guidance, navigation and control capabilities. In this paper, multiple NanoSat science applications are investigated, primarily for high risk/high return science areas. We also address the significant challenges and questions that remain as obstacles to the use of nano-satellites in deep space missions. Finally, we provide some thoughts on a development roadmap toward interplanetary usage of NanoSpacecraft.

Klesh, Andrew T.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Interplanetary Radiation and Fault Tolerant Mini-Star Tracker System

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. is partnering with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Engineering Directorate's Avionics Design Division and Flight Mechanics & Analysis Division to develop and test a prototype small, low-weight, low-power, radiation-hardened, fault-tolerant mini-star tracker (fig. 1). The project is expected to enable Draper Laboratory and its small business partner, L-1 Standards and Technologies, Inc., to develop a new guidance, navigation, and control sensor product for the growing small sat technology market. The project also addresses MSFC's need for sophisticated small sat technologies to support a variety of science missions in Earth orbit and beyond. The prototype star tracker will be tested on the night sky on MSFC's Automated Lunar and Meteor Observatory (ALAMO) telescope. The specific goal of the project is to address the need for a compact, low size, weight, and power, yet radiation hardened and fault tolerant star tracker system that can be used as a stand-alone attitude determination system or incorporated into a complete attitude determination and control system for emerging interplanetary and operational CubeSat and small sat missions.

Rakoczy, John↗
NASA NTRS1976

A history of the deep space network

The Deep Space Network (DSN) has been managed and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under NASA contract ever since NASA was formed in late 1958. The Tracking and data acquisition tasks of the DSN are markedly different from those of the other NASA network, STDN. STDN, which is an amalgamation of the satellite tracking network (STADAN) and the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN), is primarily concerned with supporting manned and unmanned earth satellites. In contrast, the DSN deals with spacecraft that are thousands to hundreds of millions of miles away. The radio signals from these distant craft are many orders of magnitude weaker than those from nearby satellites. Distance also makes precise radio location more difficult; and accurate trajectory data are vital to deep space navigation in the vicinities of the other planets of the solar system. In addition to tracking spacecraft and acquiring data from them, the DSN is required to transmit many thousands of commands to control the sophisticated planetary probes and interplanetary monitoring stations. To meet these demanding requirements, the DSN has been compelled to be in the forefront of technology.

Corliss, W. R.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Deep Space Networking Experiments on the EPOXI Spacecraft

NASA's Space Communications & Navigation Program within the Space Operations Directorate is operating a program to develop and deploy Disruption Tolerant Networking [DTN] technology for a wide variety of mission types by the end of 2011. DTN is an enabling element of the Interplanetary Internet where terrestrial networking protocols are generally unsuitable because they rely on timely and continuous end-to-end delivery of data and acknowledgments. In fall of 2008 and 2009 and 2011 the Jet Propulsion Laboratory installed and tested essential elements of DTN technology on the Deep Impact spacecraft. These experiments, called Deep Impact Network Experiment (DINET 1) were performed in close cooperation with the EPOXI project which has responsibility for the spacecraft. The DINET 1 software was installed on the backup software partition on the backup flight computer for DINET 1. For DINET 1, the spacecraft was at a distance of about 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) from Earth. During DINET 1 300 images were transmitted from the JPL nodes to the spacecraft. Then, they were automatically forwarded from the spacecraft back to the JPL nodes, exercising DTN's bundle origination, transmission, acquisition, dynamic route computation, congestion control, prioritization, custody transfer, and automatic retransmission procedures, both on the spacecraft and on the ground, over a period of 27 days. The first DINET 1 experiment successfully validated many of the essential elements of the DTN protocols. DINET 2 demonstrated: 1) additional DTN functionality, 2) automated certain tasks which were manually implemented in DINET 1 and 3) installed the ION SW on nodes outside of JPL. DINET 3 plans to: 1) upgrade the LTP convergence-layer adapter to conform to the international LTP CL specification, 2) add convergence-layer "stewardship" procedures and 3) add the BSP security elements [PIB & PCB]. This paper describes the planning and execution of the flight experiment and the validation results.

automated data communication↗
NASA NTRS2002

Clementine Observations of the Zodiacal Light and the Dust Content of the Inner Solar System

Using the Moon to occult the Sun, the Clementine spacecraft used its navigation cameras to map the inner zodiacal light at optical wavelengths over elongations of 3 approx. less than epsilon approx. less than 30 deg from the Sun. This surface brightness map is then used to infer the spatial distribution of interplanetary dust over heliocentric distances of about 10 solar radii to the orbit of Venus. The averaged ecliptic surface brightness of the zodiacal light falls off as Z(epsilon) is a member of epsilon(sup -2.45 +/- 0.05), which suggests that the dust cross-sectional density nominally falls off as sigma(r) is a member of r(sup - 1.45 +/- 0.05). The interplanetary dust also has an albedo of alpha approx. = 0.1 that is uncertain by a factor of approx. 2. Asymmetries of approx. 10% are seen in directions east-west and north-south of the Sun, and these may be due the giant planets' secular gravitational perturbations. We apply a simple model that attributes the zodiacal light as due to three dust populations having distinct inclination distributions, namely, dust from asteroids and Jupiter-family comets (JFCs) having characteristic inclinations of i approx. 7 deg, dust from Halley-type comets having i approx. 33 deg, and an isotropic cloud of dust from Oort Cloud comets. The best-fitting scenario indicates that asteroids + JFCs are the source of about 45% of the optical dust cross section seen in the ecliptic at 1 AU but that at least 89% of the dust cross section enclosed by a 1-AU-radius sphere is of a cometary origin. Each population's radial density variations can also deviate somewhat from the nominal sigma(r) is a member of r(sup -1.45). When these results are extrapolated out to the asteroid belt, we find an upper limit on the mass of the light-reflecting asteroidal dust that is equivalent to a 12-km asteroid, and a similar extrapolation of the isotropic dust cloud out to Oort Cloud distances yields a mass equivalent to a 30-km comet, although the latter mass is uncertain by orders of magnitude.

Hahn, Joseph M.↗