Capabilities and Recent Projects of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Guidance and Control Section

This paper presents a survey of select flight projects and technology development efforts in the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Guidance and Control (GNC) Section. This survey is not exhaustive, but it is intended to demonstrate the broad range of capabilities and areas of expertise held by the GNC section. The programs span the gamut of ground-only testbeds, to Earth orbiters, to deep space flyers, and the technologies needed to pursue ever more daring and innovative missions. The GNC concepts and technologies presented in this paper are informed by experience and include autonomous operation, and systems-level thinking. This paper will also present directions and interests the Section will continue pursuing as it develops new GNC systems for flight.