Autonomous navigation for deep space small satellites: Scientific and technological advances

In recent years, there is a growing interest in small satellites for deep space exploration. The current approach for planetary navigation is based on ground-based radiometric tracking. A new era of low-cost small satellites for space exploration will require autonomous deep space navigation. This will decrease the reliance on ground-based...

Relative state estimation and observability for formation flying satellites in the presence of sensor noise

This paper presents an investigation into the relative state estimation and observability for two formation flying satellites using two different relative navigation sensor sets. The first set consists out of a transmitter antenna on one satellite and a single receiver antenna on the other satellite to measure the inter-satellite range using a...