This paper documents the results from the highly successful Lunar flashlight
Optical Navigation Experiment with a Star tracker (LONEStar). Launched in
December 2022, Lunar Flashlight (LF) was a NASA-funded technology demonstration
mission. After a propulsion system anomaly prevented capture in lunar orbit, LF
was ejected from the Earth-Moon system and into heliocentric space. NASA
subsequently transferred ownership of LF to Georgia Tech to conduct an unfunded
extended mission to demonstrate further advanced technology objectives,
including LONEStar. From August-December 2023, the LONEStar team performed
on-orbit calibration of the optical instrument and a number of different OPNAV
experiments. This campaign included the processing of nearly 400 images of star
fields, Earth and Moon, and four other planets (Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn). LONEStar provided the first on-orbit demonstrations of heliocentric
navigation using only optical observations of planets. Of special note is the
successful in-flight demonstration of (1) instantaneous triangulation with
simultaneous sightings of two planets with the LOST algorithm and (2) dynamic
triangulation with sequential sightings of multiple planets.

本篇研究报道了高度成功的月球手电筒光学导航实验及其星敏感器（LONEStar）的结果，该实验是 NASA 资助的技术示范任务，并在 2022 年 12 月发射。LF 因推进系统异常而无法进入月球轨道，被抛出地月系进入日心系。NASA 将 LF 的所有权转让给佐治亚理工学院，以进行未资助的扩展任务，以展示进一步的先进技术目标，包括 LONEStar。在 2023 年 8 月至 12 月期间，LONEStar 团队完成了光学仪器和多个 OPNAV 实验的轨道校准。该实验包括处理近 400 张恒星区域、地球、月球和其他四颗行星（水金星、火星、木星和土星）的图像。LONEStar 实现了使用光学观测的行星进行日心导航的首次轨道演示，特别值得注意的是 (1) 利用 LOST 算法进行的两颗行星同时观测的瞬时三角定位的成功飞行演示，以及 (2) 利用多颗行星的连续观测进行的动态三角定位的成功飞行演示。