“天眼”飞赴广寒宫

2011年9月10日,一对专门设计用来对月球进行引力测量的卫星,GRAIL(Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory),从美国卡纳维拉尔角空军基地出发,搭乘"德尔它"2型火箭踏上前往月球的3个月的旅程。美国航宇局表示,这对卫星的任务是以前所未有的精度测量月球各处的引力强度,这些测量资料结合以往阿波罗计划月震探测的数据,将有望加深人类对月球地质和内部构造的了解。     

基于自适应滤波的编队卫星实时相对定轨

提出基于自适应滤波的编队卫星实时相对定轨算法,利用2005-12-09—10两颗GRACE（Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment）卫星的GPS（Global Positioning System）实测数据进行实时相对定轨试验计算,采用JPL（Jet Propulsion Laboratory）轨道对试验结果外部检核,结果表明:①自适应滤波相对定轨通过自适应因子,可以较好地平衡编队卫星的观测信息和相对动力学信息,其相对定轨结果精度优于Kalman滤波相对定轨结果;②自适应滤波相对定轨结果随着星间基线缩短而精度提高;③两颗GRACE卫星采用单频伪距和广播星历进行自适应滤波相对定轨,可以得到精度优于6cm的星间基线。     

重力卫星星间高精度测距技术研究

卫卫跟踪(SST)技术是当前地球重力场测量最有价值和应用前景的方法之一.高精度星间测距系统是低低卫卫跟踪(SST-ll)重力卫星的关键有效载荷.GRACE卫星携带的K波段测距系统(KBR K Band Ranging System)是一微米量级的测距系统,通过处理高精度的星间距离和距离变化率数据,可以恢复出地球重力场.GRACE后续计划又提出了一种更高精度的激光干涉测距系统.在研究KBR及激光干涉测距系统测量原理的基础上,提出了一种KBR系统的基本结构,详细分析了两种测距系统的关键技术及国内目前的研究水平,提出了我国开展星间测距系统研究的一些建议.      

星际高速公路技术及其在夸父计划中的应用

 简述了星际高速公路技术的物理意义和特征以及中国深空探测的现状和计划,分析了圆型限制性三体问题及其周期和准周期轨道,给出星际高速公路的描述与初步计算,探讨了星际高速公路技术在夸父卫星A轨道设计中的应用,最后分析了该技术在未来深空探测活动中的潜在价值。     

NRLMSISE-00大气模型与GRACE和CHAMP卫星大气密度数据的对比分析

利用GRACE(Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment)和CHAMP(Challenging Mini-Satellite Payload)卫星2002-2008年的大气密度数据与NRLMSISE-00大气模型密度结果进行比较,分析了模型密度误差及其特点.结果显示,NRLMSISE-00大气模型计算的密度值普遍偏大,其相对误差随经纬度变化,在高纬度相对较小;相对误差随地方时变化,在02:00LT和15:00LT左右较大,10:00LT和20:00LT左右较小.通过模型密度相对误差与太阳F_10.7指数的对比分析发现,在太阳活动低年模型相对误差最大,而在太阳活动高年相对误差较小;将模型结果分别与GRACEA/B双星和CHAMP卫星的密度数据进行比较,发现对于轨道高度更高的GRACE卫星轨道,模型相对误差更大;在地磁平静期,相对误差与地磁ap指数(当前3h)相关性不强,但是在大磁暴发生时,误差急剧增大.      

深空探测与行星际互联网

深空探测是指对太阳系内除地球之外的行星及其卫星、小行星和彗星等的探测,以及太阳系以外的银河系乃至整个宇宙的探测。行星际互联网(IPN)作为一种通用的空间信息网络架构,旨在为深空探测任务提供科学数据传递的通信服务及探测器和深空轨道器的导航服务。首先给出了深空探测和行星际互联网的概念,介绍了深空探测的发展现状,然后对行星际互联网体系架构进行了详细介绍,最后给出了行星际互联网的关键技术。     

应用双向时间传递的重力卫星时标误差自主测量

星间时标误差的自主测量对于中国自主研发地球重力卫星具有重要意义. 提出利用双向时间传递法实现重力卫星时标误差的自主测量, 设计了测量方案, 建立了包含卫星运动导致的链路非对称、电离层效应、设备零值以及随机测时误差在内的测量模型. 结合地球重力卫星相关特性, 分析了时标误差测量中各误差源的影响及相应的误差校正方法. 以GRACE重力卫星为例, 利用提出的方法和校正措施, 星间时标误差自主测量精度可以达到0.62ns, 其中误差主要来自系统零值标定误差和随机测时误差.      

用于小行星探测的离子推力器技术研究

随着我国深空探测技术的发展,近地小行星的探测已列入实施计划,后续的深空探测活动也在规划中。研究基于国外深空探测技术对离子推力器的技术需求以及应用情况,针对我国小行星探测离子推进技术的应用进行了分析与研究。着重阐述了满足我国首颗近地小行星探测使命的离子推力器研究,以现有成熟离子推力器为基础,对其进行性能提升研究。性能改进后的离子推力器,能够实现40和60mN两种工作模式,通过组合应用,可实现40、60、80、100和120mN共5种推力模式,以满足小行星探测的需求。     

冷原子干涉技术原理及其在深空探测中的应用展望

简要介绍了基于冷原子干涉技术的陀螺仪与重力仪的特点以及国内外研究现状,重点介绍冷原子制备、冷原子分束、反射以及原子内态探测等冷原子干涉关键技术的基本原理及其实现方法。结合深空探测特点,冷原子干涉技术在深空探测领域潜在的应用有两个方面:一方面可应用于深空探测器在飞行、交互、对接以及着陆过程中的自主导航;另一方面可应用于深空探测器引力助推过程中的重力以及加速度的精密测量。     

深空微波测距测速现状及发展建议

研究了国外深空测控无线电测距和测速的最新进展,包括欧洲空间局（European Space Agency,ESA）和美国航空航天局（National Aeronautics and Space Administration,NASA）的深空测控系统测量精度提升计划。结合总体单位的X频段试验测试数据,分析了目前我国深空测控系统无线电测距测速现状,从测量设备层面以及空间传输等方面,包括目前深空站采用的超窄带锁相环以及提高到500 kHz的测距主音等措施,对测距测速的误差源进行了分析,探讨了测距和测速精度提升的主要制约因素。结合我国深空测控系统发展规划,给出了后续深空测控无线电测量的发展建议,结合相关课题研究成果,重点分析了多频链路和实时标校技术的可行性及具体效果。     

Magnetic torquer induced disturbing signals within GRACE accelerometer data

The GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) gravity field satellite mission was launched in 2002. Although many investigations have been carried out, not all disturbances and perturbations upon satellite instruments and sensors are resolved yet. In this work the issue of acceleration disturbances onboard of GRACE due to magnetic torquers is investigated and discussed. Each of the GRACE satellites is equipped with a three-axes capacitive accelerometer to measure non-gravitational forces acting on the spacecraft. We used 10 Hz Level 1a raw accelerometer data in order to determine the impact of electric current changes on the accelerometer. After reducing signals which are induced by highly dominating processes in the low frequency range, such as thermospheric drag and solar radiation pressure, which can easily be done by applying a high-pass filter, disturbing signals from onboard instruments such as thruster firing events or heater switch events need to be removed from the previously filtered data. Afterwards the spikes which are induced by the torquers can be very well observed. Spikes vary in amplitude with respect to an increasing or decreasing current used for magnetic torquers, and can be as large as 20 nm/s². Furthermore, we were able to set up a model for the spikes of each scenario with which we were able to compute model spike time series. With these time series the spikes can successfully be removed from the 10 Hz raw accelerometer data. Spectral analysis of the time series reveal that an influence onto gravity field determination due to these effects is very unlikely, but can theoretically not be excluded.     

Estimating low resolution gravity fields at short time intervals to reduce temporal aliasing errors

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission has been estimating temporal changes in the Earth’s gravitational field since its launch in 2002. While it is not yet fully resolved what the limiting source of error is for GRACE, studies on future missions have shown that temporal aliasing errors due to undersampling signals of interest (such as hydrological variations) and errors in atmospheric, ocean, and tide models will be a limiting source of error for missions taking advantage of improved technologies (flying drag-free with a laser interferometer). This paper explores the option of reducing the effects of temporal aliasing errors by directly estimating low degree and order gravity fields at short time intervals, ultimately resulting in data products with improved spatial resolution. Three potential architectures are considered: a single pair of polar orbiting satellites, two pairs of polar orbiting satellites, and a polar orbiting pair of satellites coupled with a lower inclined pair of satellites. Results show that improvements in spatial resolution are obtained when one estimates a low resolution gravity field every two days for the case of a single pair of satellites, and every day for the case of two polar pairs of satellites. However, the spatial resolution for these cases is still lower than that provided by simply destriping and smoothing the solutions via standard GRACE post-processing techniques. Alternately, estimating daily gravity fields for the case of a polar pair of satellites coupled with a lower inclined pair results in solutions with superior spatial resolution than that offered by simply destriping and smoothing the solutions.     

Characteristics and accuracies of the GRACE inter-satellite pointing

For almost 10 years, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) has provided information about the Earth gravity field with unprecedented accuracy. Efforts are ongoing to approach the GRACE baseline accuracy as there still remains an order of magnitude between the present error level of the gravity field solutions and the GRACE baseline. At the current level of accuracy, thorough investigation of sensor related effects is necessary as they are one of the potential contributors to the error budget. In the science mode operations, the twin satellites are kept precisely pointed with their KBR antennas towards each other. It is the task of the onboard attitude and orbit control system (AOCS) to keep the satellites in the required formation. We analyzed long time series of the inter-satellite pointing variations as they reflect the AOCS performance and characteristics. We present significant systematic effects in the inter-satellite pointing and discuss their possible sources. Prominent features are especially related to the magnetic torquer characteristics, star cameras’ performance and KBR antenna calibration parameters. The relation between the magnetic torquer attitude control and the Earth magnetic field, impact of the different performance of the two star camera heads on the attitude control and the features due to uncertainties in the calibration parameters relating the star camera frame to K-frame are discussed in detail. Proper understanding of these effects will help to reduce their impact on the science data and subsequently increase the accuracy of the gravity field solutions. Moreover, understanding the complexity of the onboard system is essential not only for increasing the accuracy of the GRACE data but also for the development of the future gravity field satellite missions.     

GPS-only gravity field recovery with GOCE,CHAMP, and GRACE

Gravity missions such as the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) are equipped with onboard Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers for precise orbit determination (POD), instrument time-tagging, and the extraction of the long wavelength part of the Earth’s gravity field. The very low orbital altitude of the GOCE satellite and the availability of dense 1 s GPS tracking data are ideal characteristics to exploit the contribution of GPS high-low Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (hl-SST) to gravity field determination. We present gravity field solutions based on about 8 months of GOCE GPS hl-SST data from 2009 and compare the results with those obtained from the CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) missions. The very low orbital altitude of GOCE significantly improves gravity field recovery from GPS hl-SST data above degree 20, but not for the degrees below 20, where the quality of the spherical harmonic coefficients remains essentially unchanged. Despite the limited time span of GOCE data used, the gravity field of the Earth can be resolved up to about degree 115 using GPS data only. Empirically determined phase center variations (PCVs) of the GOCE onboard GPS helix antenna are, however, mandatory to achieve this performance.     

Drag coefficient modeling for grace using Direct Simulation Monte Carlo

Drag coefficient is a major source of uncertainty in predicting the orbit of a satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO). Computational methods like the Test Particle Monte Carlo (TPMC) and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) are important tools in accurately computing physical drag coefficients. However, the methods are computationally expensive and cannot be employed real time. Therefore, modeling of the physical drag coefficient is required. This work presents a technique of developing parameterized drag coefficients models using the DSMC method. The technique is validated by developing a model for the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite. Results show that drag coefficients computed using the developed model for GRACE agree to within 1% with those computed using DSMC.     

GOCE orbit analysis: Long-wavelength gravity field determination using the acceleration approach

The restricted sensitivity of the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) gradiometer instrument requires satellite gravity gradiometry to be supplemented by orbit analysis in order to resolve long-wavelength features of the geopotential. For the hitherto published releases of the GOCE time-wise (TIM) and GOCE space-wise gravity field series—two of the official ESA products—the energy conservation method has been adopted to exploit GPS-based satellite-to-satellite tracking information. On the other hand, gravity field recovery from data collected by the CHAllenging Mini-satellite Payload (CHAMP) satellite showed the energy conservation principle to be a sub-optimal choice. For this reason, we propose to estimate the low-frequency part of the gravity field by the point-wise solution of Newton’s equation of motion, also known as the acceleration approach. This approach balances the gravitational vector with satellite accelerations, and hence is characterized by (second-order) numerical differentiation of the kinematic orbit. In order to apply the method to GOCE, we present tailored processing strategies with regard to low-pass filtering, variance–covariance information handling, and robust parameter estimation. By comparison of our GIWF solutions (initials GI for “Geodätisches Institut” and IWF for “Institut für WeltraumForschung”) and the GOCE-TIM estimates with a state-of-the-art gravity field solution derived from GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment), we conclude that the acceleration approach is better suited for GOCE-only gravity field determination as opposed to the energy conservation method.     

DORIS-based point mascons for the long term stability of precise orbit solutions

In recent years non-tidal Time Varying Gravity (TVG) has emerged as the most important contributor in the error budget of Precision Orbit Determination (POD) solutions for altimeter satellites’ orbits. The Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission has provided POD analysts with static and time-varying gravity models that are very accurate over the 2002–2012 time interval, but whose linear rates cannot be safely extrapolated before and after the GRACE lifespan. One such model based on a combination of data from GRACE and Lageos from 2002–2010, is used in the dynamic POD solutions developed for the Geophysical Data Records (GDRs) of the Jason series of altimeter missions and the equivalent products from lower altitude missions such as Envisat, Cryosat-2, and HY-2A. In order to accommodate long-term time-variable gravity variations not included in the background geopotential model, we assess the feasibility of using DORIS data to observe local mass variations using point mascons. In particular, we show that the point-mascon approach can stabilize the geographically correlated orbit errors which are of fundamental interest for the analysis of regional Mean Sea Level trends based on altimeter data, and can therefore provide an interim solution in the event of GRACE data loss. The time series of point-mass solutions for Greenland and Antarctica show good agreement with independent series derived from GRACE data, indicating a mass loss at rate of 210 Gt/year and 110 Gt/year respectively.     

Coastal sea level changes in Europe from GPS,tide gauge,satellite altimetry and GRACE, 1993–2011

Sea level changes are threatening the human living environments, particularly along the European Coasts with highly dense population. In this paper, coastal sea level changes in western and southern Europe are investigated for the period 1993–2011 using Global Positioning System (GPS), Tide Gauge (TG), Satellite Altimetry (SA), Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and geophysical models. The mean secular trend is 2.26 ± 0.52 mm/y from satellite altimetry, 2.43 ± 0.61 mm/y from TG+GPS and 1.99 ± 0.67 mm/y from GRACE mass plus steric components, which have a remarkably good agreement. For the seasonal variations, annual amplitudes of satellite altimetry and TG+GPS results are almost similar, while GRACE Mass+Steric results are a little smaller. The annual phases agree remarkably well for three independent techniques. The annual cycle is mainly driven by the steric contributions, while the annual phases of non-steric (mass component) sea level changes are almost a half year later than the steric sea level changes.     

Quality assessment of sub-Nyquist recovery from future gravity satellite missions

Drawing on experience from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data analysis, the scientific challenges were already identified in several studies. Any future mission should focus on improvement in both precision and resolution in space and time. For future gravity missions which use high quality sensors, aliasing of high frequency time-variable geophysical signals to the lower frequency signals is one of the most serious problems. The aliasing problem and the spatio-temporal resolution are mainly restricted by two sampling theorems describing the space-time sampling of satellite missions: (i) a Heisenberg-like uncertainty theorem which states that the product of spatial resolution and time resolution is constant, and (ii) the Colombo–Nyquist rule (CNR), which requires the number of satellite revolutions in a repeat period to be at least twice a given maximum spherical harmonic degree. The CNR holds under the assumption of equal ground-track spacing, and limits the spatial resolution of the gravity solution.