Design and Analysis of the Cis-Lunar Navigation for the ArgoMoon CubeSat Mission

In the framework of the Artemis-1 mission, 10 CubeSats will be released, including the 6U CubeSat ArgoMoon, built by the Italian company Argotec and coordinated by the Italian Space Agency. The primary goal of ArgoMoon is to capture images of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. Then, ArgoMoon will be placed into a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth with several encounters with the Moon. In this phase, the navigation process will require a precise Orbit Determination (OD) and a Flight Path Control (FPC) to satisfy the navigation requirements. The OD will estimate the spacecraft trajectory using ground-based radiometric observables. The FPC is based on an optimal control strategy designed to reduce the dispersion with respect to the reference trajectory and minimize the total ΔV. A linear approach was used to determine the optimal targets and the number and location of the orbital maneuvers. A covariance analysis was performed to assess the expected OD performance and its robustness. The analysis results show that the reference translunar trajectory can be successfully flown and the navigation performance is strongly dependent on the uncertainties of the ArgoMoon’s Propulsion Subsystem and of the orbit injection.