Navigation, guidance and control of asteroid sample return spacecraft: MUSES- C

This paper describes a GNC (Guidance Navigation and Control) in MUSES-C asteroid sample return mission. In deep space, it is difficult to navigate, guide, and control a spacecraft on a real-time basis remotely from the earth mainly due to the communication delay. So autonomous navigation and guidance is required for the final approach and landing to an asteroid. It is important to navigate and guide a spacecraft to the landing point without hitting rocks or big stones. In the final descent phase, cancellation of the horizontal speed relative to the surface of the landing site is essential. This paper describes the GNC method based on optical sensors. The validity of the proposed method has been confirmed by computer simulations.