Rubén García-Zurdo

PhD Thesis

Optical Navigation and Guidance for Safe and Precise Lunar Landing

Supervisors

Manuel Sanjurjo Rivo (UC3M)

Abstract

New Lunar landing missions are being developed and others are being planned for the near future. The NASA Precision Landing Challenge (2022) considers the need for new technologies to make landing in polar areas, shadow and dark, possible. Optical technologies for lunar landing may serve several goals and may be exploited along several stages of an S/C orbiting the Moon: S/C localization, terrain relative navigation (TRN), and hazard detection and avoidance (HDA). Also, they should be integrated with the guidance, navigation and control (GNC) mechanisms of the S/C mission.

The goals of this thesis are:

• 1. Developing a localization method for an S/C or vehicle orbiting the Moon.

The data set will consist of rendered synthetic images using a Python programming pipeline. The methodology will consist of the use of deep CNN for localization and attitude estimation, based on place recognition for different trajectories (orbital, powered descent) and with generalization ability

• 2. Study the feasibility of terrain relative navigation method based on crater (or other features).

• 3. Developing autonomous hazard detection and avoidance algorithms.

A pipeline for 3d landing simulation and study of several HDA algorithms will be deployed.

• 4. Guidance, navigation, and control.

According to results from previous sections, a 3d, lossless convexification method for moon descent and landing will be developed.