Radiometric Autonomous Navigation Fused with Optical for Deep Space Exploration

With the advent of the Deep Space Atomic Clock, operationally accurate and re-liable one-way radiometric data sent from a radio beacon (i.e., a DSN antenna or other spacecraft) and collected using a spacecraft’s radio receiver enables the de-velopment and use of autonomous radio navigation. This work examines the fu-sion of radiometric data with optical data (i.e. OpNav) to yield robust and accu-rate trajectory solutions that include selected model reductions and computation-ally efficient navigation algorithms that can be readily adopted for onboard, au-tonomous navigation. The methodology is characterized using a representative high-fidelity simulation of deep space cruise, approach, and delivery to Mars. The results show that the combination of the two data types yields solutions that are almost an order of magnitude more accurate than those obtained using each data type by itself. Furthermore, the combined data solutions readily met representative entry navigation requirements (in this case at Mars).