Spacecraft Attitude Determination

Latest papers

10 papers1 paper in the last four weeks, with none the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

Learning in Orbit: Onboard Training and Closed-Loop Attitude Control with a Thermal Segmentation Model on a Spacecraft
Oct 13, 2026Elena Sorina Lupu, Hannah Grauer, Phaedrus Leeds +9Spacecraft Attitude Determination On-Device Training
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA · The Aerospace Corporation, 2310 E. El Segundo Blvd., El Segundo, CA 90245-4609, USA
Attribution and Uncertainty Behavior of Learned Residual Gyro Correction for Gyro-Stellar Estimation
Jul 27, 2026Mariela De Lucas Álvarez, Melvin Laux, Arthur de Freitas Precht +4Spacecraft Attitude Determination Residual Learning
Robotics Innovation Center, German Research Center for AI (DFKI GmbH), Bremen, Germany · Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Immenstaad, Germany
More than a Manipulator: Planning Propellant-Free Attitude Maneuvers for Free-Floating Spacecraft
Jul 13, 2026Harsh G. Bhundiya, Avi Soval, Keenan AlbeeSpacecraft Attitude Determination Space Robotics
Department of Astronautical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089 · Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089 · Departments of Astronautical, Aerospace and Mechanical, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Spacecraft Attitude Control During Atmospheric Re-Entry
Jun 30, 2026Alexander Fabisch, Melvin Laux, Mariela De Lucas Álvarez +2RL Control Spacecraft Attitude Determination
Robotics Innovation Center, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH), Germany · 2Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Germany
Decoupled Thrust-Axis Attitude Control Using Quaternions for Chandrayaan-3 Lunar Landing Mission
May 28, 2026Aditya Rallapalli, Suraj Kumar, Rijesh M P +2Robotic Control Spacecraft Attitude Determination
Controls and Digital Area, U R Rao Satellite Centre, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Bangalore, India
Prior Policy Guided Dual-Agent Coordinated Manipulation Planning of Spacecraft-Manipulator System
May 25, 2026Yuhui Hu, Dong Zhou, Kaihong Ouyang +3Robotic Control Spacecraft Attitude Determination
School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China · School of Automation, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China · School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China
Star-Fusion: A Multi-modal Transformer Architecture for Discrete Celestial Orientation via Spherical Topology
Apr 29, 2026May Hammad, Menatallh HammadSpacecraft Attitude Determination Multimodal Sensor Fusion
Department of Aerospace Informatics, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Unified Orbit-Attitude Estimation and Sensor Tasking Framework for Autonomous Cislunar Space Domain Awareness Using Multiplicative Unscented Kalman Filter
Mar 21, 2026Smriti Nandan Paul, Siwei FanSpace Situational Awareness Spacecraft Pose Estimation
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, 65409, MO, United States · Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, 3700 Willow Creek Rd, Prescott, 86301, AZ, United States
Lightweight Model Predictive Control for Spacecraft Rendezvous Attitude Synchronization
Mar 19, 2026Peter Stadler, Alexander Meinert, Niklas Baldauf +1Spacecraft Attitude Determination Model Predictive Control
Space Applications Group, e:fs TechHub GmbH, 85080 Gaimersheim, Germany · Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Hybrid Model Predictive Control with Physics-Informed Neural Network for Satellite Attitude Control
Feb 17, 2026Carlo Cena, Mauro Martini, Marcello ChiabergeSpacecraft Attitude Determination Model Predictive Control
Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

Oct 13, 2026J/K move · Enter open · S save

Learning in Orbit: Onboard Training and Closed-Loop Attitude Control with a Thermal Segmentation Model on a Spacecraft

Elena Sorina Lupu, Hannah Grauer, Phaedrus Leeds, Nikhil Ranganathan+8

California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA · The Aerospace Corporation, 2310 E. El Segundo Blvd., El Segundo, CA 90245-4609, USA

Spacecraft Attitude Determination On-Device Training

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Deep space missions increasingly require spacecraft capable of autonomously operating in environments with communication delays and bandwidth limitations. A key enabler of such autonomy is the ability to run learning-based algorithms directly onboard. In this work, we present a flight deployment on a 6U CubeSat that demonstrates (1) onboard training and inference of a thermal segmentation model on an NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX GPU in space and (2) closed-loop attitude control using the segmentation model on a real-time, thermal image feed to track the Moon. In addition to this demonstration, we implement ROS 2 Foxy as a data transport middleware and integrate an open-source file system that provides strong data integrity guarantees and self-healing features. Over the course of approximately one year, we performed 12 experiments on the spacecraft, advancing the state of the art in autonomous spacecraft systems by showing how modern learning-based pipelines, commercially available hardware, and open-source software can operate reliably under the compute and environmental constraints of Low Earth Orbit (LEO).