AI-Enabled Crater-Based Navigation for Lunar Mapping

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20748v1
• Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2025 05:09:41 GMT
• Title: AI-Enabled Crater-Based Navigation for Lunar Mapping
• Authors: Sofia McLeod, Chee-Kheng Chng, Matthew Rodda, Tat-Jun Chin,
• Abstract summary: Crater-Based Navigation (CBN) uses the ubiquitous impact craters of the Moon observed on images as natural landmarks to determine the six degrees of freedom pose of a spacecraft.<n> STELLA is the first end-to-end CBN pipeline for long-duration lunar mapping.<n>To rigorously test STELLA, we introduce CRESENT-365 - the first public dataset that emulates a year-long lunar mapping mission.
• Score: 12.60100558410094
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Crater-Based Navigation (CBN) uses the ubiquitous impact craters of the Moon observed on images as natural landmarks to determine the six degrees of freedom pose of a spacecraft. To date, CBN has primarily been studied in the context of powered descent and landing. These missions are typically short in duration, with high-frequency imagery captured from a nadir viewpoint over well-lit terrain. In contrast, lunar mapping missions involve sparse, oblique imagery acquired under varying illumination conditions over potentially year-long campaigns, posing significantly greater challenges for pose estimation. We bridge this gap with STELLA - the first end-to-end CBN pipeline for long-duration lunar mapping. STELLA combines a Mask R-CNN-based crater detector, a descriptor-less crater identification module, a robust perspective-n-crater pose solver, and a batch orbit determination back-end. To rigorously test STELLA, we introduce CRESENT-365 - the first public dataset that emulates a year-long lunar mapping mission. Each of its 15,283 images is rendered from high-resolution digital elevation models with SPICE-derived Sun angles and Moon motion, delivering realistic global coverage, illumination cycles, and viewing geometries. Experiments on CRESENT+ and CRESENT-365 show that STELLA maintains metre-level position accuracy and sub-degree attitude accuracy on average across wide ranges of viewing angles, illumination conditions, and lunar latitudes. These results constitute the first comprehensive assessment of CBN in a true lunar mapping setting and inform operational conditions that should be considered for future missions.

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