行星际CubeSats光学导航
Optical Navigation for Interplanetary CubeSats
摘要：
立方体卫星和小型卫星正在成为在深空进行科学研究和探索的低成本工具。这些新型卫星利用了电子、动力系统和通信技术小型化的最新进展，以降低发射成本和开发节奏。JPL的MarCO CubeSats是火星洞察号任务的一部分，将于2018年沿着地球逃逸轨道前往火星，并在进入，下降和着陆期间担任火星洞察号着陆器的通信中继。MarCO CubeSats的逐步进步，特别是在推进和GNC方面，可以使这些航天器能够到达另一个行星或近地天体。这可以有大量的科学回报与正确的科学仪器。我们已经开发了一个行星际立方体卫星的概念，包括机载绿色单推进剂推进系统，可以进入围绕邻近行星的捕获轨道或追逐一个小天体。一个这样的候选者是火星的卫星火卫一。由于目前CubeSat硬件的限制和缺乏火卫一的精确星历，航天器与火卫一之间的距离将有2至5公里的不确定性。当立方体卫星第一次尝试进入月球的可视范围时，这是GNC的一个主要挑战。这一挑战的一个解决方案是开发光学导航技术，使立方体卫星能够围绕目标最可能的位置进行周转轨道，自主搜索并返回目标体。在最坏的情况下，该技术将缩小小物体位置的不确定性，然后使用光流，一种计算机视觉算法来跟踪视场中物体的运动。一个光线昏暗的小天体可以通过周围一颗或多颗恒星的遮挡来探测。我们的研究提出了支持这一概念的初步模拟。
英文摘要：
CubeSats and small satellites are emerging as low-cost tools for performing science and exploration in deep space. These new classes of satellite exploit the latest advancement in miniaturization of electronics, power systems, and communication technologies to promise reduced launch cost and development cadence. JPL's MarCO CubeSats, part of the Mars Insight mission, will head on an Earth escape trajectory to Mars in 2018 and serve as communication relays for the Mars Insight Lander during Entry, Descent and Landing. Incremental advancements to the MarCO CubeSats, particularly in propulsion and GNC, could enable these spacecraft to get to another planet or to Near Earth Objects. This can have substantial science return with the right science instrument. We have developed an interplanetary CubeSat concept that includes onboard green monopropellant propulsion system and that can get into a capture orbit around a neighboring planet or chase a small-body. One such candidate is the Martian moon Phobos. Because of the limits of current CubeSat hardware and lack of an accurate ephemeris of Phobos, there will be a 2 to 5 km uncertainty in distance between the spacecraft and Phobos. This presents a major GNC challenge when the CubeSat first attempts to get into visual range of the moon. One solution to this challenge is to develop optical navigation technology that enables the CubeSat to take epicyclic orbits around the most probable location of the target, autonomously search and home-in on the target body. In worst-case scenarios, the technology would narrow down the uncertainty of the small-body location and then use optical flow, a computer vision algorithm to track movement of objects in the field of view. A dimly lit small-body can be detected by the occlusion of one or more surrounding stars. Our studies present preliminary simulations that support the concept.
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