Integrated Spacecraft Entry Navigation on the Electra Programmable Radio

Martin C. Heyne and Robert H. Bishop

Abstract:	The programmable radio known as Electra is available on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and is planned to be carried on future missions to Mars. Electra is positioned to become an integral part of the communication infrastructure for planetary exploration missions. The sensing and computational capabilities of Electra make it a candidate to become a key element of the navigation infrastructure as well. We consider how this platform can be used to improve spacecraft precision navigation during the hypersonic entry phase associated with Mars atmospheric entry. The proposed navigation algorithm utilizes a modelbased sigma point Kalman filter to process inertial measurement data as external measurements. It is shown that the proposed navigation algorithm can provide excellent inertial velocity estimation while executing within the restricted computational resources of the Electra programmable radio. The position estimation errors are improved over dead-reckoning, and will be further improved once the altimeter is activated.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2007 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 2007 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	615 - 627
Cite this article:	Heyne, Martin C., Bishop, Robert H., "Integrated Spacecraft Entry Navigation on the Electra Programmable Radio," Proceedings of the 2007 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2007, pp. 615-627.
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