Abstract:Radio navigation is faced with some problems in deep space such as signal transmission delay, low data transmission rate and celestial occlusion. It is difficult to meet the navigation needs of deep space exploration in the future. Using celestial information to provide navigation support for spacecraft, autonomous celestial navigation technology can effectively improve its mission execution and survivability in deep space, which has become a hot topic in the field of navigation. Based on the deep space exploration missions and their actual engineering requirements at home and aboard, the development status and characteristics of autonomous celestial navigation methods are firstly introduced and then the development trend and key research contents of autonomous celestial navigation methods are summarized. Finally, some suggestions are put forward for the development of autonomous celestial navigation methods.