A Navigation Observation-Driven Trajectory Planning Method for Asteroid Landing

In asteroid exploration missions, the observation quality of optical navigation features is one of the key factors that influence the accuracy of autonomous navigation. To enhance the efficiency of navigation observation in asteroid landing missions, this paper incorporates the observation requirements of navigation features into the trajectory planning process, and proposes a navigation observation-driven trajectory planning method for asteroid landing. This paper analyzes the unevenly distribution of navigation features on asteroid surface and calculates their clustering centers. Based on this analysis, a set of trajectory control points are determined. The landing trajectory is then redesigned by using Bezier Curve, and a two-dimensional waypoint sequence is obtained to fulfill the observation requirements. Furthermore, a three-dimensional navigation observation-driven trajectory is established by solving a trajectory optimization problem with waypoint constraints, revealing how the navigation feature distribution and observation requirements influence the landing trajectory. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through a numerical simulation, where the landing trajectory can be flexibly adjusted, and the observation quality of navigation features is significantly improved.