ESA Technology Developments in Vision-Based Navigation

The European Space Agency (ESA) has been developing on-board Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) technologies to support space activities in Earth orbit and beyond. One of the areas of development has been the use of vision-based systems to improve the performance and the autonomy of the navigation function. This paper will focus on two classes of missions enabled by vision-based navigation (VBN): rendezvous (in Earth or planetary orbit, with collaborative or non-collaborative targets) and precision descent and landing on planetary surfaces. It will present an overview of both recently completed and on-going ESA technology activities raising the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of VBN systems for these missions.