Star Tracker navigation datasets

Dataset Description

The Star Tracker navigation datasets were generated as part of the STAR Nav project, led by Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with Leonardo SpA, and were used to assess the performance of limb-based interplanetary navigation algorithms on the LUMIO mission scenario. The dataset contains images of the Moon at different positions and phase angles, all acquired by the AA-STR MKII star tracker provided by Leonardo SpA in the TinyV3RSE optical facility at Polimi's DART Lab.
The AA-STR MKII integrates an optical head and a processing unit within a single mechanical enclosure. The optical head has a field of view of 10 degrees and a focal length of 50.7 mm. The detector is based on the HAS2 sensor, a 1024x1024-pixel APS with a pixel pitch of 18 μm. TinyV3RSE is one of DART Lab’s optical stimulators, that is composed of a high-resolution screen stimulating the star tracker through a collimating lens. The facilities are geometrically and radiometrically calibrated both for resolved and unresolved objects. The geometric and radiometric calibrations have been validated against laboratory and open-sky acquisitions, showing the ability of both calibrations to reproduce trustworthy images with high geometrical and radiometric consistency.

MOON15_000_036

This dataset contains lab-acquired images of the Moon in DART Lab’s optical stimulator TinyV3rse. Images are acquired with phase angles varying from 0 to 36 degrees. Images are not generated on a predefined trajectory around the Moon.

Number of images: 100
Data source: DART Lab’s TinyV3rse at Politecnico di Milano

MOON15_036_090

This dataset contains lab-acquired images of the Moon in DART Lab’s optical stimulator TinyV3rse. Images are acquired with phase angles varying from 36 to 90 degrees. Images are not generated on a predefined trajectory around the Moon.

Number of images: 865
Data source: DART Lab’s TinyV3rse at Politecnico di Milano

MOON15_090_120

This dataset contains lab-acquired images of the Moon in DART Lab’s optical stimulator TinyV3rse. Images are acquired with phase angles varying from 90 to 120 degrees. Images are generated to mimic the LUMIO trajectory.

Number of images: 100
Data source: DART Lab’s TinyV3rse at Politecnico di Milano

How to download

The dataset is freely available on Zenodo at the following link: https://zenodo.org/records/15166001.

References

These datasets and the related documentation were produced as part of the STAR Nav project, ESA Contract No. 4000139932/22/NL/CRS.

If you are using these datasets in your work, consider citing our paper:

• Panicucci, P., Balossi, C., Ornati, F., Piccolo, F., Pizzetti, A., Topputo, F., Capolupo, F. (2025). What if Star Trackers Were Navigation Cameras?. In 35th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting (pp. 1-23).

More information about the STAR Nav project is available in the following publications:

• Ornati, F., Panicucci, P., Pizzetti, A., Topputo, F. (2024, October). A Radiometric Calibration Procedure for Optical Hardware-In-the-Loop Stimulators. In 4th Space Imaging Workshop.

• Pizzetti, Andrea, Paolo Panicucci, and Francesco Topputo. "A Radiometric Consistent Render Procedure for Planets and Moons." 4th Space Imaging Workshop. 2024.

More information about the TinyV3RSE facility is available in the following publications:

• Panicucci, P., Topputo, F. (2022). The TinyV3RSE hardware-in-the-loop vision-based navigation facility. Sensors, 22(23), 9333. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22239333

• Pugliatti, M., Franzese, V., Panicucci, P., Topputo, F. (2022). TinyV3RSE: the DART vision-based navigation test-bench. In AIAA Scitech 2022 Forum (p. 1193). https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-1193

More information about the LUMIO mission and trajectory is available here:

• Cervone, A., Topputo, F., Speretta, S., Menicucci, A., Turan, E., Di Lizia, P., M. Massari, V. Franzese, C. Giordano, G. Merision, D. Labate, G. Pilato, E.Costa, E. Bertels, A. Thorvaldsen, A. Kukharenka, J. Vennekens, and Walker, R. (2022). LUMIO: A CubeSat for observing and characterizing micro-meteoroid impacts on the lunar far side. Acta Astronautica, 195, 309-317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.03.032

• Panicucci, P., Piccolo, F., Rizza, A., Merisio, G., Topputo, F., Walker, R. (2024). Vision-based navigation for the lumio cubesat mission. In 46th AAS Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference (pp. 1-20).

• Giordano, C., Buonagura, C., Martinelli, A., Merisio, G., Franzese, V., Topputo, F. (2024). Trajectory design and analysis of the LUMIO CubeSat. In AIAA Scitech 2024 Forum (p. 1271). https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-1271