How can defence platforms maintain reliable navigation when GNSS is unavailable, disrupted or compromised?
This is becoming an increasingly important question for modern defence platforms operating in environments where conventional satellite-based navigation cannot always be relied upon.
In a recent interview with TEDAE – Asociación Española de Empresas Tecnológicas de Defensa, Seguridad, Aeronáutica y Espacio, SOLAR MEMS Business Development Manager Inés Pérez discusses the challenges of GNSS-denied and GNSS-degraded environments and the role that resilient navigation technologies can play in addressing them.
Navigating when GNSS is unavailable
GNSS has become an essential source of positioning, navigation and timing information for modern platforms. However, interference, spoofing and deliberate disruption can significantly affect its availability and reliability.
For defence applications, this creates a need for navigation architectures that can continue to provide reliable information when GNSS signals are degraded or unavailable.
In the interview, Inés explores how resilient navigation can combine different sources of navigation information to provide greater robustness in challenging operating environments.
One of these technologies is stellar navigation.
From celestial navigation to optical sensing
The concept behind stellar navigation is centuries old. Long before satellites existed, navigators used the position of the Sun and stars as references to determine their position and orientation.
Today, advances in optical sensors, computing and algorithms are bringing this principle into a new technological era.
Rather than relying on visible landmarks or external signals, stellar navigation uses celestial objects as references. Advanced optical sensors can identify these references and extract navigation information that can complement other onboard systems.
This creates an alternative source of navigation information that does not depend on GNSS signals.
From space heritage to defence applications
At SOLAR MEMS, this technology builds on more than a decade of experience developing sun sensors and star trackers for space missions.
The company’s experience in identifying and measuring celestial references has provided the foundation for the development of STELION, a family of optical navigation technologies designed for demanding terrestrial and defence applications.
By adapting space-derived optical sensing technologies to platforms operating on Earth, STELION aims to contribute to navigation architectures capable of operating in GNSS-degraded and GNSS-denied environments.
This transition from space to terrestrial applications represents an important evolution of stellar navigation technology — taking a principle traditionally associated with spacecraft and applying it to the navigation challenges faced by modern defence platforms.
Building more resilient navigation architectures
Resilient navigation is not necessarily about replacing one technology with another. Instead, the objective is to provide platforms with multiple complementary sources of navigation information.
Stellar navigation can therefore form part of a broader navigation architecture, working alongside inertial systems and other onboard sensors to help maintain navigation capability when GNSS cannot be relied upon.
For autonomous and crewed platforms operating in increasingly complex environments, this additional layer of navigation resilience can become an important part of mission design.
Discover the full interview
Inés Pérez discusses the challenges of GNSS-denied navigation, resilient navigation and the role of stellar navigation in the full TEDAE interview.
Watch the full interview on TEDAE:
TEDAE – Hablemos de Defensa y Seguridad
From centuries-old celestial navigation principles to today’s advanced optical sensors, the stars are finding a new role in modern navigation.