Guidance, Navigation, and Control Technology Assessment for Future Planetary Science Missions: Part I. Onboard and Ground Navigation and Mission Design

Publication No.: JPL D-109704

Future planetary explorations envisioned by the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Origins, Worlds and Life 2023–2032, developed at the request of NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Planetary Science Division (PSD), seek to reach targets of broad scientific interest across the solar system. This goal can be achieved by missions with next-generation capabilities such as innovative interplanetary trajectory solutions, highly accurate landings, the ability to be in close proximity to targets of interest, advanced pointing precision, multiple spacecraft in collaboration, multi-target tours, and advanced robotic surface exploration. Advancements in guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) and mission design—ranging from software and algorithm development to new sensors—will be necessary to enable these future missions.

Spacecraft GN&C technologies have been evolving since the launch of the first rocket. Navigation is defined as the science behind transporting ships, aircraft, or spacecraft from place to place; particularly, the method of determining position, course, and distance traveled. Guidance is defined as the process of controlling the flight path of a vehicle so as to reach a desired target. Control is defined as the onboard manipulation of vehicle steering controls to track guidance commands while maintaining vehicle pointing with the required precision. As missions become more complex, technological advancements of GN&C systems must keep pace, and the last decade has shown a lot of progress.

Part I, Onboard and Ground Navigation and Mission Design, is one of a series of four technology assessment reports evaluating the capabilities and technologies needed for future missions pursuing SMD PSD’s scientific goals. These reports cover the status of technologies and provide findings and recommendations to NASA PSD for future needs in GN&C and mission design technologies. Part I covers planetary mission design in general, as well as the estimation and control of vehicle flight paths when flight path and attitude dynamics may be treated as decoupled or only loosely coupled (as is the case the majority of the time in a typical planetary mission). Part II, Onboard Guidance, Navigation, and Control, covers attitude estimation and control in general, as well as the estimation and control of vehicle flight paths when flight path and attitude dynamics are strongly coupled (as is the case during certain critical phases, such as entry, descent, and landing, in some planetary missions). Part III, Surface and Sub-Surface Guidance, Navigation, and Control, examines GN&C for vehicles that are not in free flight, but that operate on and below the surface of a natural body of the solar system. Part IV, Aerial Guidance, Navigation, and Control, examines GN&C for heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air vehicles in buoyant or sustained free flight in the atmospheric environment of a natural body of the solar system. Together, these documents provide the PSD with a roadmap for achieving science missions in the next decade.

Patricia M. Beauchamp

Engineering and Science Directorate

Jet Propulsion Laboratory – California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, CA 91109