🌓 Tycho Orbital

Autonomous navigation for the lunar economy.

Tycho Orbital is a space technology company building vision-based autonomous navigation systems for spacecraft operating at the Moon. Our software enables spacecraft to estimate their position and orbit using onboard cameras and lunar surface feature recognition - reducing reliance on Earth-based radiometric tracking.

As lunar activity accelerates, traditional tracking infrastructure (DSN, ground stations) will not scale. Tycho’s approach provides a scalable, resilient, and mission-agnostic alternative: spacecraft that know where they are, independently.

What we build

• 📷 Vision-based lunar OpNav using craters and surface features
• 🛰️ Flight-relevant navigation software designed for onboard autonomy
• 📊 Open datasets and benchmarks to advance the state of lunar navigation

Why open source

We believe critical navigation software should not be a black box. Open development:

• Improves trust and verifiability for mission operators
• Accelerates innovation through shared datasets and models
• Enables a broader lunar ecosystem to emerge

Our mission

To make autonomous lunar navigation robust, interoperable, and accessible - supporting science, exploration, and commercial missions across cislunar space.