Abstract: The lunar exploration mission requires a long-range autonomous navigation of lunar rover, heading information is an important part of lunar rover navigation, its precision will affects the localization precision and the performance of navigation directly, especially for long range, long duration traverse on the moon. A variety of technologies have contributed to the heading detection and localization of lunar rover, but there is no concretely defined heading detection architecture. In this paper, a feasible scenario is developed for absolute heading detection of lunar rover,which is based on the vector observation information coming from CCD(Charge Couple Device) sun sensor and accelerometer, and the process of heading detection is described in detail. Finally its validity is testified by simulation.

Key words: lunar exploration, lunar rover, sun sensor, accelerometer, heading