EraDrive has reportedly received clearance to test autonomous spacecraft-maneuvering software on NASA’s Starling mission. The October 27 report describes authorization for trajectory-adjustment experiments, extending work associated with spacecraft navigation.
The distinction between navigation and maneuvering is important to understanding the development. Navigation establishes where a spacecraft is and how it is moving. Maneuvering changes its trajectory. Clearance for experiments involving the second function does not establish that those maneuvers have already been completed successfully.
Building on Optical Navigation
NASA’s earlier Starling account, published August 17, describes FALCON work involving optical navigation that does not depend on GPS. EraDrive’s Era-Core software combines camera observations with an object catalog to support navigation.
An optical approach uses objects observed by a camera as information about the spacecraft’s position or motion. The software must interpret those observations and relate them to the reference information in its catalog.
That navigation work provides context for the newly reported maneuvering experiments. A spacecraft that can estimate its state still needs a separate process for deciding whether to change its trajectory and implementing an authorized adjustment.
From Navigation Information to Action
The reported clearance concerns testing how the software acts on navigation information. It marks permission to conduct a further category of experiment, rather than publication of completed maneuvering results.
The available report does not establish a completed test schedule, maneuver magnitude, or measured improvement in operational performance. The supported development is that EraDrive has been cleared to proceed with autonomous trajectory-adjustment experiments on Starling, building on the mission’s previously described optical-navigation work.
