The near real time image navigation of pictures returned by Voyager 2 at Neptune
Abstract
The development of a process for performing image navigation in near real time is described. The process was used to accurately determine the camera pointing for pictures returned by the Voyager 2 spacecraft at Neptune Encounter. Image navigation improves knowledge of the pointing of an imaging instrument at a particular epoch by correlating the spacecraft-relative locations of target bodies in inertial space with the locations of their images in a picture taken at that epoch. More than 8,500 pictures returned by Voyager 2 at Neptune were processed in near real time. The results were used in several applications, including improving pointing knowledge for nonimaging instruments ('C-smithing'), making 'Neptune, the Movie', and providing immediate access to geometrical quantities similar to those traditionally supplied in the Supplementary Experiment Data Record.
- Publication:
-
Astrodynamics 1989
- Pub Date:
- 1990
- Bibcode:
- 1990asdy.conf..150U
- Keywords:
-
- Flyby Missions;
- Neptune (Planet);
- Real Time Operation;
- Space Navigation;
- Voyager 2 Spacecraft;
- Celestial Bodies;
- Imaging Techniques;
- Spacecraft Position Indicators;
- Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command and Tracking