Sci-Tech Forum 2022

Sci-Tech Forum 2022

A few of our team members are attending the Sci-Tech Forum this week both physically and virtually. We invite you to listen to their work being presented, which demonstrates great collaboration and support from the NASA Gateway Program. Enter into discussion and learn ways we may support your needs. We look forward to connecting with you.

Paper presented by our Astrodynamics and Navigation Engineer, Connor Ott
 Session: SFM-04, Orbit Determination and Space Surveillance Tracking
 Session Room Name: Coronado B
 Presentation Title: Range Biases, Measurement Noise, and Perilune Accuracy in Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit Navigation
 Tuesday, January 4, 14:00 – 15:40 PST (In-Person)

Paper presented by our Astrodynamics Engineer and Mission Design Lead, Ethan Kayser
 Session: SFM-06, Trajectory Design and Optimization I
 Paper Title: Navigation and Mission Design for Low-Thrust Insertion into Near Rectilinear Halo Orbits
 Tuesday, January 4, 16:00 – 17:15 PST (Virtually)

Paper presented by our Astrodynamics and Navigation Engineer, Michael Thompson
 Session: SFM-17, Trajectory Design and Optimization VII
 Session Room Name: Cortez Hill C
 Presentation Title: An Analysis of Downstream Uncertainty in NHRO Stationkeeping Strategies
 Thursday, January 6, 14:00 – 15:40 PST (In-Person)

Cislunar Orbit Determination and Tracking via Simulated Space-Based Measurements

Cislunar Orbit Determination and Tracking via Simulated Space-Based Measurements

Michael R. Thompson, Nathan P. Ré, Cameron Meek, Bradley Cheetham

ABSTRACT

Building on previous work in cislunar orbit determination at Advanced Space, this paper demonstrates cislunar orbit determination via simulated optical measurements from another spacecraft in cislunar space. The goal of this work is to evaluate the potential performance (in terms of the uncertainties in the state of a target object) of space-based optical tracking filters in the vicinity of the Moon.

Presented at the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) 2021 Conference

35th Annual SmallSat Conference (Virtual) – 2021

35th Annual SmallSat Conference (Virtual) – 2021

Advanced Space: Thomas Gardner, Brad Cheetham, Alec Forsman, Cameron Meek, Ethan Kayser, Jeff Parker, Michael Thompson
Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems: Tristan Latchu, Rebecca Rogers
Stellar Exploration: Brennan Bryant, Tomas Svitek

ABSTRACT

The cislunar environment is about to get much busier and with this increase in traffic comes an increase in the demand for limited resources such as Earth based tracking of and communications with assets operating in and around the Moon. With the number of NASA, commercial, and international missions to the Moon growing rapidly in the next few years, the need to make these future endeavors as efficient as possible is a challenge that is being solved now. Advanced Space is aiming to mitigate these resource limitations by enabling the numerous spacecraft in the cislunar environment to navigate autonomously and reduce the need for oversubscribed ground assets for navigation and maneuver planning. Scheduled to launch on a Rocket Lab Electron in October 2021, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission will leverage a 12U CubeSat to demonstrate both the core software for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) as well as a validation of the mission design and operations of the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) that NASA has baselined for the Artemis Lunar Gateway architecture. Currently being developed in a Phase III of NASA’s SBIR program, our CAPS software will allow missions to manage themselves and enable more critical communications to be prioritized between Earth and future cislunar missions without putting these missions at increased risk. (more…)