METHOD OF SPACECRAFT INTERSTELLAR NAVIGATION Russian patent published in 2019 - IPC G01C21/24 

FIELD: measuring equipment.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to measurement equipment and can be used in onboard systems for interstellar navigation of spacecrafts (SC) to determine autonomous estimates of orbit and SC orientation. Method of interstellar navigation of a spaceship, according to which an onboard catalogue of coordinates of stars is compiled and memorized, limiting selection of stars with a stellar magnitude, which is displayed by the onboard monitoring system. Design trajectory of spacecraft is plotted with reference to onboard catalogue of coordinates of stars. Optical-electronic surveillance system devices rigidly fixed on spaceship carry out navigation sessions by recording image of star sky sections, selecting the brightest star on the detected areas in the central part of the field of vision and adjacent stars, determining distances on the image from the selected central star to neighbouring stars. Distances between the stars measured at the image and distances obtained from the on-board catalogue are compared. If all these distances coincide, the selected central star is identified on the image with the corresponding star from the catalogue, the orientation of the spacecraft and its position on the flight trajectory are determined, taking into account the position of the central star and neighbouring stars on the image in the instrument coordinate system. Data of calculations and measurements are stored. At that, when changing measured on image distance between stars compared to distances obtained from onboard catalogue, board catalogue is corrected. Design trajectory of the spacecraft is plotted with reference to the corrected catalogue of coordinates of stars. Navigation parameters are determined from data of corrected catalogues and current position of spaceship on trajectory.

EFFECT: interstellar spacecraft navigation.

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