&lt;p&gt;Every one of the future exploration architectures being considered by NASA have, at their core, the need to rendezvous and dock with other vehicles or bodies.&amp;nbsp; Future manned vehicles need to be able to do so with both cooperative and uncooperative vehicles and objects.&amp;nbsp; To this end, the sensors being considered are all optical-based.&amp;nbsp; In fact, passive sensors, such as IR cameras and visual cameras, are at the heart of any exploration architecture.&amp;nbsp; There is a need for the onboard systems to be able to use the images provided by these sensors to rendezvous and dock/capture these objects.&amp;nbsp; Therefore, this project will develop this capability to operate around a variety of objects, without a priori knowledge of their geometry.&amp;nbsp; In particular, a technology called &amp;lsquo;optical flow&amp;rsquo; or &amp;lsquo;visual odometry&amp;rsquo; (VO), will be harnessed to develop a robust on-board capability using passive sensors; of course, if active sensors are available, they will be used as well. In fact, we will also apply this technique to navigating around a cratered object (such as an asteroid). This project will enhance the Agency&amp;rsquo;s ability to operate at distant locations, without the need for ground intervention.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To date, all of the on-board navigation development performed has focused on either Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or Low Lunar Orbit (LLO).&amp;nbsp; We seek to advance deep-space navigation technology by focusing this Internal Research and Development (IRAD) upon rendezvous and navigation in a weak gravity environment, either at Lagrangian point 2 (L2) or around an asteroid.&amp;nbsp; Of course, this will apply to any destinations that have a strong gravity field as well.&amp;nbsp; As well, the technology developed in this Internal Research and Development will apply to rendezvousing with vehicles such as ISS.&amp;nbsp; We choose to focus our IRAD effort on the navigation algorithms and software for the ARCM DRO Mission, thus broadening our scope, maintaining our cutting-edge capability, and advancing US manned space exploration.&amp;nbsp; The goal is to be flexible enough to meet the needs of the NASA vision, as it applies to any destination the Agency chooses to embark upon.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;