Image Courtesy: NASA
NASA has demonstrated a new way for satellites to determine their position in orbit without relying on GPS, using other spacecraft and pieces of orbital debris as reference points instead. The breakthrough could give future spacecraft greater autonomy, particularly in regions where conventional navigation signals are weak or unavailable.
The technology, called FALCON, or Fast Autonomous Lost-in-space Catalog-based Optical Navigation, was tested aboard NASA’s Starling mission. The system uses Starling’s onboard star-tracker cameras to identify objects around the spacecraft and compare them with a catalog of known orbital objects.
During the demonstration, FALCON identified other satellites and orbital debris and used their known positions as optical reference points to calculate Starling’s own orbit. The system also worked in reverse, using observations of surrounding objects to improve estimates of their positions.
For the experiments, Starling was loaded with information on roughly 20,000 space objects and their predicted orbits. FALCON then compared that data with observations from the spacecraft’s cameras. Over three days, it autonomously improved the known orbits of more than 200 objects without intervention from operators on the ground.
NASA describes the self-orbit determination capability as a first for spacecraft using optical cameras to navigate based on their position relative to other objects in space. The technology could become particularly useful beyond Earth, where GPS signals are unavailable. Future lunar satellite swarms, distributed science missions and spacecraft supporting human exploration could potentially use similar systems.
The experiment also has implications for managing increasingly crowded orbits around Earth. Satellites capable of independently identifying and tracking nearby objects could reduce their reliance on ground-based tracking networks and provide additional information for collision avoidance.
FALCON is a joint NASA and EraDrive experiment. The company’s technology grew out of university research and combines its Era-Core flight software with Starling’s existing cameras and onboard systems.
Starling consists of four CubeSats launched in 2023 and is managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center. Later this year, NASA plans to expand the FALCON experiment, allowing the four spacecraft to share tracking information and collectively refine their positions.
The achievement does not mean satellites no longer need GPS in general. Instead, it demonstrates a new backup and autonomous navigation method that could become increasingly valuable as spacecraft venture farther from Earth.
