"The general goal of the project is to develop an innovative solution for spacecrafts' Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) sensor for relative navigation. It is a contribution to the strengthening of the European position for space exploration. It targets the improvement of the accuracy and robustness of spacecraft position and attitude control to, for example, land softly and precisely sensitive scientific payload on extraterrestrial bodies. This project is proposed in relation with the technological field (C) IN-FLIGHT NAVIGATION AND CONTROL of the topic FP7-SPA.2010.2.1-04 ""Space transportation for space exploration"".Several space exploration missions are foreseen at an international level targeting the Moon, Mars or asteroids. To reach these future missions’ terms of requirement, new GNC technologies are needed. It is the frame for which the project FOSTERNAV has been imagined. The objectives are twofold: the development of novel optical sensor architecture and the demonstration of its applicability for object relative robotic navigation for space applications. The concept is to merge in a sensor architecture the last research concepts of laser rangefinder or Light Detection and Ranging device (LIDAR) for space applications and introduce new elements having demonstrated technological supremacy in other fields such as the security or the robotic.The first phase of the project will investigate mission scenarios. The sensor specifications and the applicability test protocols will be specified upon these investigations. The sensor development and realization will take place in the second phase of the project. In the second phase, the ground dynamic and applicability assessment facilities and the test protocols for the sensor will also be studied. The project will end with a third phase where a prototype of the flash optical sensor will be assessed to demonstrate the applicability of the sensor typology for relative navigation."