Optical System for Measuring Position in Space

There exist certain distinct advantages in accuracy and economy in the use of systems to measure vehicle position which operate at optical wavelengths. The positions measured are usually of critical importance to the success of a space mission. There are several types of navigational and tracking systems which produce data in an immediately usable form. Such real time systems, however, sacrifice some relative accuracy to gain speed of data availability. Stellar metric camera systems presently offer the most accurate means of determining position in space; however, there is an unavoidable time delay in reducing the data to a usable form. There is room for significant improvement in the errors of presently used stellar metric cameras, particularly in the geometrical optical characteristics of the lenses in both design and fabrication. The usefulness of such cameras can be extended by daylight use with the proper designs and techniques. Lunar-based cameras should also offer several advantages over Earth-based systems, but only at a high price. Recent developments in optical design techniques using high speed digital computers have brought fcjr greater sophistication and economy than had previously been possible. Vastly improved new optical designs are just waiting to be executed for application to the problems\u27of Measuring Positions in Space