Vision-based autonomous navigation system and method for a satellite

A system for autonomous navigation of a satellite, referred to as host satellite, equipped with means for moving and orienting said satellite, a unit for controlling these means, said system comprising:

• at least one camera for acquiring a plurality of images of the area surrounding said host satellite,
• a module for default processing of said acquired images, referred to as long-range module, configured to detect and to identify space objects within said images, to calculate their relative orbits and distances with respect to the host satellite, and to determine the attitude of said host satellite,
• a module for conditional processing of said acquired images, referred to as short-range module, configured to estimate the attitude of at least one of said space objects, referred to as target object, detected and identified by said long-range module, said short-range module being implemented when said long-range module has detected at least one space object located at a distance estimated to be less than a predetermined threshold distance,
• a module for determining a possible rendezvous between at least said target object and the host satellite from an estimation of the trajectory of said target object and of said host satellite, and
• a module for preparing and transmitting command instructions to said control unit of said means for moving and orienting said satellite based on said rendezvous determined by said rendezvous-determining module.