Comparison of Deep Space Navigation Using Optical Imaging, Pulsar Time-of-Arrival Tracking, and/or Radiometric Tracking

TL;DR

This paper compares optical imaging, pulsar timing, and radiometric tracking for deep space navigation, analyzing their effectiveness through simplified models and high-fidelity simulations to guide autonomous space missions.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of three navigation data types using semi-analytical and Monte Carlo methods, highlighting their strengths and limitations for autonomous deep space navigation.

Findings

Optical imaging offers high accuracy in certain scenarios.

Pulsar timing provides reliable autonomous navigation signals.

Radiometric tracking remains effective but less autonomous.

Abstract

Recent advances with space navigation technologies developed by NASA in space-based atomic clocks and pulsar X-ray navigation combined with past successes in autonomous navigation using optical imaging, brings to the forefront the need to compare space navigation using optical, radiometric, and pulsar-based measurements using a common set of assumptions and techniques. This review article examines these navigation data types in two different ways. First, a simplified deep space orbit determination problem is posed that captures key features of the dynamics and geometry, and then each data type is characterized for its ability to solve for the orbit. The data types are compared and contrasted using a semi-analytical approach with geometric dilution of precision techniques. The results provide useful parametric insights into the strengths of each data type. In the second part of the paper, a high-fidelity, Monte Carlo simulation of a Mars cruise, approach, and entry navigation problem is studied. The results found complement the semi-analytic results in the first part, and illustrate specific issues such as each data type's quantitative impact on solution accuracy and their ability to support autonomous delivery to a planet.