A big shoutout to Justin Kruger who became today a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Stanford Space Rendezvous Laboratory (SLAB). His exceptional PhD thesis has just been published and can be downloaded at the link below. Justin did something monumental for a PhD student by developing new algorithms for autonomous distributed satellite swarm navigation using vision-based cameras AND by successfully demonstrating them in orbit on the NASA Starling mission through the Starling Formation-Flying Optical Experiment (StarFOX).
This accomplishment represents the quintessential nature of SLAB. We conceive, design, build, and fly novel autonomy stacks for distributed space systems.
Kruger, J.; Flight algorithms for autonomous tracking and navigation of distributed space systems using inter-satellite bearing angles; Stanford University, PhD Thesis (2024):
Table 10.5 from Justin's PhD thesis is emblematic of how we proceed. Technology demonstration missions are rigorously defined and accompanied by thresholds and goals on Key Performance Parameters (KPP). Measurement sparsity and on-board software challenges have produced initial difficulties in fulfilling StarFOX objectives. Nevertheless, StarFOX has already demonstrated Capabilities 1 and 2 in flight and has demonstrated Capability 3 using post-processed imagery. Thresholds have also been met for KPPs 1, 2, 4, and 5 in-flight, and for KPP 3 using post-processed imagery. These are the first ever published demonstrations of multi-observer and multi-target angles-only navigation for a satellite swarm in orbit.
And this is only the beginning. Way to go Justin!!
