This thesis addresses the development of low-cost remote-sensing and navigational techniques for commercial and private small, unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) to support a multimodal surveying platform capable of navigating in little to no light. The motivation for this research arises from the growing need to expand commercial sUAS’s ability to safely and efficiently navigate in complex environments and collect useful data in an affordable manner. The research in this thesis particularly focuses upon systems that would be beneficial for an sUAS equipped with a multimodal sensor suite for visible and thermal remote sensing. The research seeks to develop a low-cost data collection workflow for gathering visible light and thermal orthomosaic maps and digital elevation models (DEM’s) without relying on expensive software packages. A series of commercial and open-source image reconstruction software packages are compared and augmented with custom tools to support a low-cost aerial mapping and data analysis technique. Additionally, this research explores alternative sensors to enable enhanced obstacle avoidance in complex flight environments in little to no light. Two novel sensor prototypes are discussed including a concept for an ultrasonic thermometer as well as a laser-projection system for detecting thin features. Sensors such as these offer low-cost alternatives to LIDAR and radar systems while continuing to expand sUAS operation into low-light environments. This project seeks to present the building blocks for a hypothetical UAV system capable of rapidly collecting a large amount of aerial imagery and thermal data in a dark environment. Such a platform can have uses in numerous applications such as nighttime delivery services in urban environments, search and rescue missions in forested areas, as well as thermal and structural inspection of buildings.