Center Innovation Fund: JSC CIF
Pulsar Navigation for Crewed Exploration of the Solar System, Year 1
Project Description
The area of focus is autonomy and autonomous navigation of vehicles outside of LEO. In addition, we propose to anchor the vehicle's clock which will provide accurate timing for the entire vehicle. We will design, develop and test the sensor electronics and optics which are compatible with the mass, power and size constraints of Orion and future habitation and Mars transfer vehicles. We will integrate this with a sensor loaned from GSFC and perform analysis as to the efficacy of this navigation technology. This project extends the NICER/SExTANT capability supported by STMD during its formulation. NICER/SExTANT is a flight experiment due to be tested on-board the ISS by the end of this calendar year.
More »Anticipated Benefits
The Gateway station will need to be able to navigate autonomously without relying on the DSN and the ground to determine its navigation state. x-ray navigation, along with optical navigation will provide a navigation capability that will be essential for the Evolvable Mars Campaign. This technology addresses two key requirements: accurate navigation and autonomy.All future architectures for crewed exploration of the Solar System will require the vehicles such as Gateway to operate autonomously for periods of time without relying on the DSN and the ground to determine its navigation state. In particular, the delays due to one-way light time may be up to several minutes. These vehicles will be required to return the crew to Earth in case of loss of communications with the ground. A central aspect of this is the ability to navigate independent of the ground.
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Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
Johnson Space Center
(JSC)
|
Lead Organization | NASA Center | Houston, Texas |
Goddard Space Flight Center
(GSFC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Greenbelt, Maryland |
| Texas A & M University-College Station (Texas A&M) | Supporting Organization |
Academia
Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI)
|
College Station, Texas |
| The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. | Supporting Organization | Non-Profit Institution | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| The University of Texas at Austin | Supporting Organization | Academia | Austin, Texas |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
Maryland
-
Texas
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