ONBOARD GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTROL TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT FOR FUTURE PLANETARY SCIENCE MISSIONS

This paper presents an evaluation of the onboard GN&C capabilities and technologies needed for future missions pursuing NASA's planetary science goals. In particular, this assessment 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 or performed primarily onboard (as is the case during certain critical phases, such as entry, descent, and landing, in some planetary missions). This work first surveys the technologies, appraises their applicability to future NASA planetary missions, and then quantitatively assesses priorities for NASA based on likely need, relevance and optionally cost.