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Publications (23)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has been developing on-board Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) technologies to support space activities in Earth orbit and beyond. One of the areas of development has been the use of vision-based systems to improve the performance and the autonomy of the navigation function. This paper will focus on two classes...
As current and future space exploration missions are getting bolder, so do the requirements on the navigation algorithms and subsequently on their implementation in the avionics modules and on the associated data interfaces. To achieve the high level of autonomy and reliability required in today’s space missions, vision-based navigation making use...
Access to the Moon surface is a cornerstone of the recently published ESA Terrae Novae 2030+ Strategy Roadmap. European industrial studies of such a capability starting as early as 2016 have converged to a medium-sized multi-mission lander enabled by the significant lunar capability of Ariane 64: The European Large Logistic Lander (EL3). EL3 is a M...
Accurate relative pose estimation of a spacecraft during space landing operation is critical to ensure a safe and successful landing. This paper presents a 3D Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) based AI relative navigation architecture solution for autonomous space landing. The proposed architecture is based on a hybrid Deep Recurrent Convolutiona...
Recent interest in on-orbit servicing and Active Debris Removal (ADR) missions have driven the need for technologies to enable non-cooperative rendezvous manoeuvres. Such manoeuvres put heavy burden on the perception capabilities of a chaser spacecraft. This paper demonstrates Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) capable of providing an initial coa...
Optical-based navigation for space is a field growing in popularity due to the appeal of efficient techniques such as Visual Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (VSLAM), which rely on automatic feature tracking with low-cost hardware. However, low-level image processing algorithms have traditionally been measured and tested for ground-based explo...
ESA’s fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Georges Lemaître, performed its fully automated rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station (ISS) on August 12, 2014. The ATV’s navigation sensors have shown their worth docking the 20-ton vehicles with aft port of the Space Station, manoeuvring into position and docking with a...
This article describes the design and validation of an autonomous Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) for Phobos Sample Return mission for the Descent and Landing phase. It outlines the main drivers for the design choices including operational constraints, pinpoint landing requirements, environmental conditions, such as: Sun exposition and day du...
In the last years GMV has led several ESA projects devoted to technology development of autonomous GNC for proximity operations and landing on asteroids. These activities allowed developing vision-based GNC and IP algorithms that are tested in several environments to increase its Test Readiness Level (TRL) road to a flight mission. The different va...
This paper describes the acquisition of a collection of representative image datasets for use in the development of autonomous planetary descent and landing navigation systems. These datasets were recently obtained using the VISILAB test-bench at ESA-ESTEC in The Netherlands, and represent realistic powered descent trajectories over a Lunar-type su...
ESA has been developing on-board Guidance, Navigation, and Control technologies for characterization, sample-return, and deflection missions to asteroids and comets (Rosetta, Don-Quijote, Marco-Polo, AIM). GNC systems have been prototyped for all mission phases, from early detection until landing. The GNC technologies are based on vision-based navi...
The use of machine vision to guide robotic spacecraft is being considered for a wide range of missions, such as planetary approach and landing, asteroid and small body sampling operations and in-orbit rendezvous and docking. Numerical simulation plays an essential role in the development and testing of such systems, which in the context of vision-g...
As reminded to us by the collision between an old Russian Low Earth Orbit (LEO) telecommunication satellite
(Kosmos-2251) and an operational Iridium satellite in 2009, space debris are not becoming a threat : they
already are a threat. Although de-orbit procedures are now mandatory on all satellites currently launched, following the UN-level agreem...
ESA and JAXA are currently studying a sample return mission to a Near-Earth Object (NEO). The Marco Polo mission will travel to a primitive NEO, survey it from orbit, approach and land on the surface, retrieve samples, and return them to Earth. The NEO to be visited is thought to be a primitive remnant left over from the formation of the planets. A...
A mathematical model describing the coarse dynamics of a vehicle passing through a planetary atmosphere is presented. The model is capable of illuminating the spiraling characteristics of the trajectory highlighting the parameters that impact in-plane and out-of-place motion. A definition of spiraling frequency is proposed. Numerical investigations...
A flight model for a maneuvering reentry vehicle was developed for implementation in a bank of extended Kalman filters regulated by a gating network. The system was applied to the tracking and identification at high altitude of reentering spiraling objects accompanied by decoys. The object is being tracked at high altitude by three ground radars pr...
Not available Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
The application of a hierarchical mixture of experts architecture to martian entry navigation during the highly dynamic hypersonic pre-parachute deploy phase is investigated. The entry navigation filter design is approached in a nontraditional way by processing accelerometer and gyro data in an extended Kalman filter as if they were external measur...
Missions using vision-based navigation systems require test and validation means which include representation of virtual planetary landscapes. This paper describes the PANGU software (Planet and Asteroid Natural scene Generation Utility) developed for ESA by the University of Dundee and its use so far in ESA projects for development and validation...
