An Autonomous Navigation Method for Spacecraft in Cislunar Space Using Stellar Aberration Observation

Abstract

Exploration and utilization of the cislunar space is of great significance to the future development of human society. In order to improve navigation efficiency and survivability of spacecraft in cislunar space and reduce the burden of ground measurement and control，an autonomous navigation method only using star imagery was presented. In the method，the observation model was constructed based on stellar aberration effect. With the help of the orbit dynamic model and an extended Kalman filter，spacecraft orbit was estimated. For the problems of gravitational field interference from large celestial bodies and navigation accuracy decline under the constraints of small field of view，a gravitational field processing model based on dynamical model prediction and a multi-field collaborative observation method were proposed. Finally，the Monte-Carlo simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method，and show that a navigation precision RMS better than 3 km and 0.2 m/s can be achieved.

Keywords

stellar aberration / autonomous navigation / celestial navigation / cislunar space