What follows is an enumerated list of items to be completed as part of each task. The completion of these items will be spread over the entire period of performance. Task #1: provide technical…

This is a cooperative agreement awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a private university and non-profit organization located in Troy, New York. The $611,772.84 agreement supports the development of several navigation techniques for NASA's Orion program, including horizon-based optical navigation for planets with atmospheres, landmark recognition, and vision-based relative navigation algorithms. The work involves providing technical expertise, modeling and algorithm development, testing, and documentation of the research results. There is no set-aside designation for this contract. RPI has experience delivering a range of research, development, and educational services to federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and NIH, as both a prime and subcontractor.

What follows is an enumerated list of items to be completed as part of each task. The completion of these items will be spread over the entire period of performance. Task #1: provide technical expertise for orion opnav software provide advice and guidance as algorithm SME assistance with developing tests and interpreting test results assistance with code debugging and diagnosing errors participate in regular telecons and meetings participation in reviews of opnav algorithms, software, and sensors in-person support for data reduction and analysis during EM-1 flight task #2: develop techniques for horizon-based opnav for planets with atmospheres explore atmosphere models and assess observability of atmospheric parameters develop models for horizon elevation bias testing of algorithms on real (if available) and synthetic imagery task #3: develop landmark navigation techniques review state-of-the-art in approaches for landmark recognition explore lighting invariant descriptors and how these might be applied to landmarks develop light-weight and flexible surface rendering pipeline that is extensible to use onboard a typical flight processor detailed comparison of descriptor-based and correlation-based techniques for both landmark identification and landmark localization implement an end-to-end landmark navigation architecture suitable for processing images of the lunar surface test landmark navigation system with both real (if available) and synthetic imagery task #4: develop vision-based relative navigation algorithms develop reflector identification (reflid) algorithms for lidar-based cooperative navigation develop algorithms for camera-based relnav suitable for problems of interest to engineers at NASA JSC task #5: documentation, presentation, and dissemination of results document results in internal memoranda to be distributed to appropriate NASA and contractor team members production of scholarly research articles that will be published in reputable journals in a timely manner public dissemination of research results at relevant conferences