AstroNav: Autonomy for Navigating Deep Space and Beyond

Autonomous navigation is becoming a critical capability for modern deep space exploration, planetary defense, and commercial space ventures. Traditional spacecraft navigation relies heavily on ground-based radio contact to collect two-way radiometric Doppler and range measurements. However, this structural dependency introduces significant communication latency and places a heavy burden on oversubscribed ground antenna networks. For cutting-edge applications—such as navigating through the active plumes of Enceladus or executing precise planetary defense maneuvers like ion beam deflection and gravity tractoring—the turnaround time of ground-based loops is simply too slow. Furthermore, legacy onboard solutions present severe limitations in modularity or applicability.

This talk addresses these challenges by highlighting the critical need for autonomous navigation within the rapidly expanding modern space economy. We begin with a historical review of autonomous deep space navigation, tracking its evolution from the pioneering AutoNav software developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for Deep Space 1 through its critical successes on the Stardust and Deep Impact comet missions. The presentation then provides a comprehensive overview of AstroNav, the next-generation successor designed to overcome legacy limitations. We will detail the specific architectural and algorithmic augmentations that advance AstroNav far beyond past technologies, including its modular, plug-and-play capability to ingest multi-source data. Finally, we will present the concept of operations for AstroNav’s upcoming flight technology demonstration payload integrated onto the CAPSTONE-2 spacecraft, scheduled for launch in mid-2027.

Dr Swati Mohan was born in Bengaluru, India, and emigrated to the United States of America with her parents when she was one year old. Dr. Mohan attended Cornell University and received her B.S. in 2004 in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.  After a brief stint working at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Cassini mission, in 2004-2005, she went on to graduate school at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Aeronautics/Astronautics department.  She rejoined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2010 in the Guidance, Navigation, and Controls section.  Since then, Swati has worked on a number of missions, such as GRAIL, OCO-3, Mars 2020 Perseverance, and Psyche. She is best known for being the voice of Entry, Descent, and Landing for Perseverance’s landing on February 18, 2021.  She was the GNC lead and a Chief Engineer for the Psyche mission, which launched on October 13, 2023.  After launching Psyche, Swati has transitioned to the Mars Sample Return mission.  She first served as Chief Engineer for the Mars Launch System, then later as the Descent Command and Control Lead.  She is currently the Project Manager for AstroNav, an autonomous celestial navigation payload.