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Navigation Technology

Maurer stands in the middle of this circular fisheye image, facing the camera, wearing a green t-shirt and black pants. In his right hand, he holds a cube-shaped Astrobee, which has black sides and a white panel facing the camera with two bright blue lights that look sort of like eyes. Maurer is pointing at the Astrobee with his left hand.
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer sets up an Astrobee for the ReSWARM experiment.
Credits: NASA

Science in Space April 2025

Humans have always been explorers, venturing by land and sea into unknown and uncharted places on Earth and, more recently, in space. Early adventurers often navigated by the Sun and stars, creating maps that made it easier for others to follow. Today, travelers on Earth have sophisticated technology to guide them.

Navigation in space, including for missions to explore the Moon and Mars, remains more of a challenge. Research on the International Space Station is helping NASA scientists improve navigation tools and processes for crewed spacecraft and remotely controlled or autonomous robots to help people boldly venture farther into space, successfully explore there, and safely return home.

Ayers is wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt and a black headband, facing the camera with her hair floating around her head. In her right hand she holds a small black microphone, which is connected by a thick grey cord to a gold and black box slightly larger than a laptop on the wall of the space station.
NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers talks to students on the ground using ham radio equipment.
NASA

A current investigation, NAVCOM, uses the space station’s ISS Ham Radio program hardware to test software for a system that could shape future lunar navigation. The technology processes signals in the same way as global navigation satellite systems such as GPS, but while those rely on constellations of satellites, the NAVCOM radio equipment receives position and time information from ground stations and reference clocks.

The old made new

Gerst is wearing a black t-shirt and a silver watch on his left wrist. With his right hand, he is holding up to his right eye a black sextant, which has a rectangular eyepiece connected to a curved base with an arm at each end that forms a triangle. He is using is left hand to adjust a knob on the base. Three of the station’s cupola windows are visible behind him.
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst operates the Sextant Navigation device.
NASA

Sextant Navigation tested star-sighting from space using a hand-held sextant. These mechanical devices measure the angle between two objects, typically the Sun or other stars at night and the horizon. Sextants guided navigators on Earth for centuries and NASA’s Gemini and Apollo missions demonstrated that they were useful in space as well, meaning they could provide emergency backup navigation for lunar missions. Researchers report that with minimal training and practice, crew members of different skill levels produced quality sightings through a station window and measurements improved with more use. The investigation identified several techniques for improving sightings, including refocusing between readings and adjusting the sight to the center of the window.

Navigating by neutron stars

The station’s NICER 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 pulse, sweeping across the sky as the stars rotate. Some of them pulse at rates as accurate as atomic clocks. As part of the NICER investigation, the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology or SEXTANT tested technology for using pulsars in GPS-like systems to navigate anywhere in the solar system. SEXTANT successfully completed a first in-space demonstration of this technology in 2017. In 2018, researchers reported that real-time, autonomous X-ray pulsar navigation is clearly feasible and they plan further experiments to fine tune and modify the technology.

Robot navigation

Crews on future space exploration missions need efficient and safe ways to handle cargo and to move and assemble structures on the surface of the Moon or Mars. Robots are promising tools for these functions but must be able to navigate their surroundings, whether autonomously or via remote control, often in proximity with other robots and within the confines of a spacecraft. Several investigations have focused on improving navigation by robotic helpers.

Barratt, wearing a blue t-shirt and khaki pants, is floating horizontally holding on to a blue bar with his right hand and looking up at one of three spherical robots floating in front of him. The spheres are, from left to right, blue, orange, and red. Wakata, wearing a grey t-shirt and green pants, is holding onto a blue bar with both hands and looking to his left.
NASA astronaut Michael Barratt (left) and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata perform a check of the SPHERES robots.
NASA

The SPHERES investigation tested autonomous rendezvous and docking maneuvers with three spherical free-flying robots on the station. Researchers reported development of an approach to control how the robots navigate around obstacles and along a designated path, which could support their use in the future for satellite servicing, vehicle assembly, and spacecraft formation flying.

McArthur, wearing a pink t-shirt and khaki pants, is smiling at the camera. In front of her float three cube-shaped robots that have, from left to right, blue, green, and yellow panels.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur with the three Astrobee robots.
NASA

The station later gained three cube-shaped robots known as Astrobees. The ReSWARM experiments used them to test coordination of multiple robots with each other, cargo, and their environment. Results provide a base set of planning and control tools for robotic navigation in close proximity and outline important considerations for the design of future autonomous free-flyers.

Researchers also used the Astrobees to show that models to predict the robots’ behavior could make it possible to maneuver one or two of them for carrying cargo. This finding suggests that robots can navigate around each other to perform tasks without a human present, which would increase their usefulness on future missions.

Cristoforetti, wearing a grey sweatshirt and a headset, is visible on the left side of this image. She is looking at a laptop and typing on it with her left hand and, with her right, holding a white control stick attached to a large, circular white device on the wall.
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti working on the Surface Avatar experiment.
ESA

An investigation from ESA (European Space Agency), Surface Avatar evaluated orbit-to-ground remote control of multiple robots. Crew members successfully navigated a four-legged robot, Bert, through a simulated Mars environment. Robots with legs rather than wheels could explore uneven lunar and planetary surfaces that are inaccessible to wheeled rovers. The German Aerospace Center is developing Bert.

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