NASA Tech Talks: Enhancing Autonomous Onboard Navigation Systems

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Category: Aerospace, Founders & Startups, General Community

Free

Past Event

WHEN

Thursday

September 24, 2026

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm CDT

WHERE

Ion

4201 Main Street
Houston, TX 77002 + Google Map

what

We want HOU! Join us to discover NASA’s toughest tech challenges—and apply your skills and expertise to solve them.

Most spacecraft rely on ground communications to navigate robustly, which poses a risk for loss of mission in the event of extended communication loss. The Orion spacecraft has an Optical Navigation system that uses an onboard camera to estimate vehicle position based on measurements of Earth/Moon limb. This enables onboard navigation even in PCL scenarios, but only at intermediate ranges where the limb is visible. A Target & Range-adaptive Optical Navigation system (TRON) has been developed at NASA JSC that incorporates additional types of Optical Navigation to estimate position from crater images at near ranges and from unresolved planets at far ranges, enabling onboard navigation over a wider variety of mission profiles. This talk will provide an overview of this new tool suite, its release as an integrated software application, and details on two upcoming test flight demonstrations.

Please join us after the talk for drinks and networking at Second Draught!

About the Speakers

Jorge Chong got his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2017 doing research on smart materials for in-space thermal control systems. He then went to work for the Aeroscience & Flight Mechanics Division at NASA Johnson Space Center on the Orion Optical Navigation team (supporting both Artemis I & II) and more broadly as a GNC test engineer. In 2024, he started Project TRON and has been the project manager for that team since then.

Montgomery B. Goforth has more than 40 years of experience as both Engineer and Manager in a variety of highly technical space and defense-related efforts. After working for a small defense contractor specializing in anti-submarine warfare, he joined NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 1990. He has held leadership positions in multiple JSC Directorates and Program Offices. In his previous role as Assistant Director of the JSC Engineering Directorate, he established a framework to better focus Engineering’s efforts towards Human Spaceflight technology and systems development consistent with JSC and Agency goals for exploration. Mr. Goforth is now serving as Acting Director of the Business Development & Technology Integration Office at JSC, and as the JSC Chief Technologist. In these capacities he will be helping to expand the Houston Aerospace Community through the identification of opportunities to develop space/terrestrial technologies of interest to JSC and Human Space Exploration. Mr. Goforth was born in East Texas, raised in Southern California and Arizona, and graduated from Rice University (BSME 1982, MSME 1987).

About NASA Tech Talks

In these presentations, occurring the fourth Thursdays of the month, Mr. Montgomery Goforth and other aerospace subject matter experts will discuss the technology development challenges faced by NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the surrounding Aerospace community in our ongoing efforts as the hub of human spaceflight. Presentations will focus on the ways in which these challenges, and the associated opportunities, can be leveraged by Houston’s innovation community. We will continue to identify potential space/terrestrial technologies of interest to Human Spaceflight. Past NASA Tech Talks have included topics such as:

From Space to Startup: Leveraging NASA Technology and Innovation to Propel Your Growing Enterprise
Disruptive Filter Technology for Spacecraft Water Treatment: The New Promise of Graphene
Lunar dust capture using novel multiplexed inertial filter
Lunar Passive Fuel Cell Technologies:
Microbes in Space

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NASA Tech Talks: Enhancing Autonomous Onboard Navigation Systems

Free

WHEN

Thursday

WHERE

what

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Organizer Website

Event Calendar

NASA Tech Talks: Enhancing Autonomous Onboard Navigation Systems

Free

WHEN

Thursday

WHERE

what

CONTACT

Organizer

Organizer Website

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