Autonomous orbit determination for satelite formations using relative sensing: observability analysis and optimization
Orbit determination of spacecraft in orbit has been mostly dependent on either GNSS satellite signals or ground station telemetry. Both methods present their limitations, however: GNSS signals can only be used effectively in earth orbit, and ground-based orbit determination presents an inherent latency that increases with the Earth-spacecraft distance. For spacecraft flying formations, an alternative method of orbit determination, independent of external signals, consists in the observation of the spacecraft's position with respect to the central body through the relative positioning history of the spacecraft within the formation. In this paper, the potential of the relative positioning method is demonstrated in the context of the SunRISE mission, and compared with the mission's previously proposed orbit determination methods. An optimization study is then made to find the optimal placement of a new spacecraft in the formation so as to maximize the positioning accuracy of the system. Finally, the possibility of removing part of the system's relative bearing measurements while maintaing its observability is also studied. The resulting system is found to be observable, but ill-conditioned.
Code (0)
등록된 구현이 없습니다.
Similar Papers 제목 키워드 기반
Performance Analysis of Crosslink Radiometric Measurement based Autonomous Orbit Determination for Cislunar Small Satellite Formations
Recent advances in space technology provide an opportunity for small satellites to be launched in cislunar space. However, tracking these small satellites still depends on ground-based operations. Autonomous navigation c…
Autonomous NavigationState EstimationKernel Embedding Approaches to Orbit Determination of Spacecraft Clusters
This paper presents a novel formulation and solution of orbit determination over finite time horizons as a learning problem. We present an approach to orbit determination under very broad conditions that are satisfied fo…
Domain GeneralizationAutonomous Crosslink Radionavigation for a Lunar CubeSat Mission
This study presents an autonomous orbit determination system based on crosslink radiometric measurements applied to a future lunar CubeSat mission to clearly highlight its advantages with respect to existing ground-based…
Autonomous NavigationPositionState EstimationAdaptive and Dynamically Constrained Process Noise Estimation for Orbit Determination
This paper introduces two new algorithms to accurately estimate the process noise covariance of a discrete-time Kalman filter online for robust orbit determination in the presence of dynamics model uncertainties. Common …
Autonomous NavigationNoise EstimationActive Learning-Enhanced Dual Control for Angle-Only Initial Relative Orbit Determination
Accurate relative orbit determination is a key challenge in modern space operations, particularly when relying on angle-only measurements. The inherent observability limitations of this approach make initial state estima…
Active LearningState Estimation