A vision-based navigation facility for planetary entry descent landing

Abstract

This paper describes a facility set up as a test bed and a proof of concept to study open issues of future space missions. The final goal of such studies is to increase the on board autonomy, of primary importance for missions covering very high distances. We refer in particular to vision-based modules, in charge of acquiring and processing images during the Entry Descent and Landing (EDL) phases of a Lander, and contributing to a precise localization of the landing region and a safe landing. We will describe the vision-based algorithms already implemented on the facility, and a preliminary experimental analysis which allowed us to validate the approaches and provided very promising results. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.