AI-Enhanced Guidance, Navigation, and Control for High-Precision Space Missions

Dear Colleagues,

The escalating demands of advanced space exploration and sophisticated satellite applications necessitate an unprecedented level of precision, autonomy, and robustness in spacecraft Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) systems. This Special Issue aims to address these critical needs by gathering cutting-edge research focused on new AI-driven GNC technologies specifically tailored for executing high-precision space missions.

Traditional GNC approaches are increasingly challenged by the complexity and stringent requirements of modern spacecraft tasks, such as ultra-precise attitude determination and control for optical payloads, highly accurate orbit maneuvering for scientific instruments, autonomous and safe rendezvous and docking, and robust fault-tolerant operations in dynamic environments. Artificial intelligence (AI), encompassing machine learning, deep learning, reinforcement learning, and intelligent decision-making algorithms, offers transformative paradigms to overcome these limitations. We are particularly interested in how AI can enable adaptive control, predictive navigation, intelligent anomaly detection, and autonomous mission execution, pushing the boundaries of what is achievable in terms of GNC performance and reliability.

This Special Issue invites original research articles and comprehensive reviews on theoretical developments, advanced AI algorithms, innovative hardware-in-the-loop experiments, and practical applications that leverage AI to enhance the precision, autonomy, and robustness of spacecraft GNC for demanding space operations. Contributions exploring the intricate interplay of AI with structural dynamics for micro-vibration suppression and pointing stability are also highly encouraged. We seek papers that advance the development of more intelligent, reliable, and high-performance space systems capable of achieving next-generation mission objectives.

Dr. Qing Luo
Prof. Dr. Zhaokui Wang
Dr. Di Huang
Dr. Xiaohua Zhang
Guest Editors

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