Drone Flight Demonstration of a Self-Positioning Scheme and Devices for Small-Body Exploration

Autonomous navigation is essential for small-body exploration, particularly for sophisticated missions such as sample-return operations. This study proposes a radio marker-based self-positioning system for small-body exploration using the asynchronous one-way ranging (AOWR) technique. In the proposed system, the spacecraft distributes a master time reference to radio markers deployed on the surface, enabling simultaneous ranging and clock synchronization among multiple entities. The system is designed to support both surface landing and cooperative rendezvous operations within a multi-spacecraft mission architecture. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system for small-body exploration, a ground-based analogue experiment was conducted using a drone and four radio markers. The experimental results show that the system achieves positioning accuracy comparable to GPS-based measurements on the ground, indicating its applicability to small-body missions.