The First Solution to the Lost in Space Problem

In December 2018 and January 2019, weeks after a successful fly-by of Mars and relay of the InSight landing, communication with the MarCO cubsats were lost. The causes of this loss of communications with the MarCO cubesats are unknown, but could be related to a power issue or onboard fault. This leaves the MarCO cubesats effectively, lost in space, having no way to autonomously recover time, position, or velocity, should the spacecraft recover from the anomaly. This research will show a full solution to the lost in space orbit determination problem. This solution is achieved by using self-acquired optical observations via cubesat star tracker, of the planets, moons, and stars, thereby re-initializing the mission operations using low size, weight and power sensors compatible with small spacecraft architecture. Such cases of a lost in space spacecraft have not been systematically investigated until now. This research will show that it is indeed possible to solve this problem, recovering time, position, and velocity, and will show analysis in the context of the high precision requirements of planetary missions. Using the MarCO architecture and hardware as a baseline, this research will present a solution based on the orbital parameters of the MarCO cubesats