Citation
Abstract
This article describes and discusses the navigation fundamentals needed for designing a precision-landing mission to a small solar-system body such as a comet or asteroid. The discussion focuses on the unique aspects of a small-body landing, the roles that ground-based operations and data types have, the roles that body-relative data types have, the constraints under which an autonomous system must operate, and the interaction and cooperation that must exist between all these aspects. Some specific examples of precision-landing capabilities are included for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft at the end of its prime mission and for the Champollion spacecraft.
Keywords
small solar system bodies
autonomous navigation
ground-based navigation
landing navigation
Details
- Volume
- 42-132
- Published
- February 15, 1998
- Pages
- 1–12
- File Size
- 223.8 KB