A Terrain Referenced Precision Approach based on LiDAR for Lunar Landing

Abstract

Terrain Referenced Navigation, referred to as TRN, is the one of the multi-sensor integrated navigation systems. And it has recently gained the interest as a backup system of conventional navigation methods due to widespread availabilities. In TRN, the terrain height measurement is correlated with terrain database to correct the position error. TRN is a powerful navigation method in the moon where does not have position fixing methods like GNSS. The terrain height information is used to achieve the navigation performance for precise lunar landing approach. The terrain height information of TRN is obtained using high performance ranging sensor LiDAR(Light Detection And Ranging). LiDAR is well developed showing its potential for TRN. Especially, LiDAR can make the height information which has high accuracy, resolution and update rate. This paper explains the component of TRN based on LiDAR. And we discuss the configuration of precise terrain referenced approach based on LiDAR height measurement for landing on the moon.