Humans have always been explorers, venturing into land and sea in unknown and unexplored places on earth and, more recently, in space. The first adventurers often sailed through the sun and the stars, creating cards that allowed others to follow others. Today, travelers on earth have sophisticated technology to guide them.
Navigation in space, including so that the missions explore the Moon and Mars, remains a challenge. Research on the International Space Station helps NASA scientists to improve navigation tools and processes for crew spacecrafts and remotely controlled or autonomous robots to help people venture daring further in space, to explore successfully and to return safely at home.
A current survey, NavcomUse the space station Ham radio Program the hardware to test software for a system that could shape the future lunar navigation. Technology deals with signals in the same way as global navigation satellite systems such as GPs, but although these count on satellite constellations, NavCom radio equipment receives position and time stations on the ground and reference clocks.
Sextant navigation Tested as a star from space using a portable sextant. These mechanical devices measure the angle between two objects, generally the sun or other stars at night and the horizon. Sextants guided browsers on Earth for centuries and NASA Gemini and Apollo missions have shown that they were also useful in space, which means that they could provide emergency safeguard navigation for lunar missions. Researchers report that with minimum training and practice, crew members of different levels of competence produced quality observations thanks to a station window and the measurements have improved with more use. The survey has identified several techniques to improve observations, including refocusing between readings and the adjustment of the view at the center of the window.
The station Nicer The instrument studies the nature and behavior of neutron stars, the densest objects in the universe. Some neutron stars, known as pulsars, emit beams of light that appear to be pulsed, sweeping the sky when the stars turn. Some of them are at rates as precise as atomic clocks. As part of the most beautiful survey, the station explorer for synchronization and X -ray navigation technology or the technology tested by Sextant to use pulsars in GPS type systems to navigate anywhere in the solar system. Sextant managed to finish a first in space demonstration of this technology in 2017. In 2018, researchers reported This pulsar navigation with autonomous X -rays in real time is clearly achievable and they provide other experiences to refine and modify technology.
The crews on future spatial exploration missions need effective and safe means of managing freight and moving and assembling structures on the surface of the Moon or Mars. Robots are promising tools for these functions, but must be able to sail in their environment, whether autonomous or via a remote control, often nearby with other robots and within the limits of a spaceship. Several surveys have focused on improving navigation by robotic aids.
THE Spheres The survey tested maneuvers of meetings and independent mooring with three spherical free flight robots on the station. Researchers reported Development of an approach to control the way robots sail around obstacles and along a designated path, which could support their use in the future for the maintenance of satellites, the assembly of vehicles and the flight of the formation of spaceships.
The station then won three cube -shaped robots known as the name Astrobes. THE To reproach Experiences have used them to test the coordination of several robots with each other, freight and their environment. Results provide A set of planning and control tools for robotic navigation nearby and describes important considerations for the design of future autonomous flights.
Researchers also used astrobes to to show That the models to predict the behavior of the robots could make it possible to maneuver one or two of them to transport freight. This observation suggests that robots can navigate to each other to perform tasks without human presentation, which would increase their usefulness in future missions.
A survey by ESA (European Space Agency), Surface avatar Orbit-ground remote control evaluated by several robots. Crew successfully Add a four -legged robot, Bert, through a simulated Mars environment. Robots with legs rather than wheels could explore unequal lunar and planetary surfaces inaccessible to wheels. The German aerospace center is developing Bert.