NASA has demonstrated a navigation technology that allows spacecraft to determine their position without relying on GPS. Tested during the agency’s Starling mission, the Fast Autonomous Lost-in-space Catalog-based Optical Navigation system, or FALCON, uses other spacecraft and orbital debris as reference points for navigation, tells Science Daily.
GPS signals commonly guide satellites near Earth, but they can become weak or unavailable around the Moon and farther into space. FALCON addresses this limitation by allowing spacecraft to calculate their location from objects they can observe. The technology combines EraDrive’s Era-Core flight software and algorithms with Starling’s cameras and an onboard catalog of known space objects.
During the demonstration, Starling’s star tracker cameras observed satellites and orbital debris. FALCON identified these objects by comparing the observations with a public catalog containing information about known objects in orbit. After confirming their identities, the system used their positions as reference points to calculate Starling’s orbit.
FALCON also demonstrated that autonomous spacecraft could improve information about objects around them. Mission controllers provided Starling with a catalog of approximately 20,000 objects and their predicted orbits. The system compared these predictions with camera observations and refined the estimated positions. Over three days, it improved the known orbits of more than 200 objects without intervention from ground operators.
NASA says this is the first time a spacecraft has determined its own orbit with optical cameras by measuring its position relative to other space objects. The capability could support satellite networks around the Moon or Mars, distributed science missions, space traffic monitoring, and collision avoidance.
FALCON originated through a university technology program before its development by EraDrive. NASA plans to extend the experiment later this year, when Starling’s four spacecraft will share tracking observations and collectively refine their positions.
