Survey-only optical strategies for cataloguing space debris objects in the future European space surveillance system

In the framework of a potential European Space Situational Awareness System (ESSAS), we propose some optical strategies such that try to minimize the requirement of tracking measurements for the orbit determination computation when the catalogue is under construction. We will analyse them in terms of coverage, timeliness and orbit determination accuracy by means of the AS4 simulator (developed by Deimos Space S.L.U.). Moreover, observation campaigns have been performed from La Sagra Observatory in order to check the applicability of those strategies. These strategies are used for defining different choices for the future European Optical Space Surveillance System in the framework of the ESA contract no. 22738/09/D/HK.     

Modified unscented Kalman filtering and its application in autonomous satellite navigation

In this paper, a modified unscented Kalman filter (UKF) for nonlinear stochastic systems is proposed, and it is applied to autonomous orbit determination for Earth satellites. Based on some standard results about the boundedness of stochastic processes and a new formulation of the unscented transformation (UT), it is demonstrated that the design of the noise covariance matrix plays an important role in enhancing the filter stability. Furthermore, a particular design of the noise covariance matrix is proposed as a modification of the UKF. The modified UKF is less sensitive to the initial error than the usual one. High performance of the modified UKF is illustrated in comparison with the usual one by using the real data obtained from an Earth sensor.     

Central difference predictive filter for attitude determination with low precision sensors and model errors

Attitude determination is one of the key technologies for Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) of a satellite. However, serious model errors may exist which will affect the estimation accuracy of ACDS, especially for a small satellite with low precision sensors. In this paper, a central difference predictive filter (CDPF) is proposed for attitude determination of small satellites with model errors and low precision sensors. The new filter is proposed by introducing the Stirling’s polynomial interpolation formula to extend the traditional predictive filter (PF). It is shown that the proposed filter has higher accuracy for the estimation of system states than the traditional PF. It is known that the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) has also been used in the ADCS of small satellites with low precision sensors. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed filter, the UKF is also employed to compare it with the CDPF. Numerical simulations show that the proposed CDPF is more effective and robust in dealing with model errors and low precision sensors compared with the UKF or traditional PF.     

飞行校验系统GPS/DGPS定位及排故分析

飞行校验对保证各类导航设备的精度符合性至关重要,完成飞行校验的核心部件是机载飞行校验系统,其中的飞机实时定位分系统对校验结果产生重要影响。本文对当前校验系统中较常用的定位手段及故障隔离案例进行分析。     

Accurate orbit predictions for debris orbit manoeuvre using ground-based lasers

Orbit manoeuvre of low Earth orbiting (LEO) debris using ground-based lasers has been proposed as a cost-effective means to avoid debris collisions. This requires the orbit of the debris object to be determined and predicted accurately so that the laser beam can be locked on the debris without the loss of valuable laser operation time. This paper presents the method and results of a short-term accurate LEO (<900 km in altitude) debris orbit prediction study using sparse laser ranging data collected by the EOS Space Debris Tracking System (SDTS). A main development is the estimation of the ballistic coefficients of the LEO objects from their archived long-term two line elements (TLE). When an object is laser tracked for two passes over about 24 h, orbit prediction (OP) accuracy of 10–20 arc seconds for the next 24–48 h can be achieved – the accuracy required for laser debris manoeuvre. The improvements in debris OP accuracy are significant in other applications such as debris conjunction analyses and the realisation of daytime debris laser tracking.     

基于基线延长的高精度北斗双星系统快速定向算法研究

由于北斗定位系统的两颗卫星位于赤道的同步轨道，对地静止且可观测的载波相位信息少，因此传统多星系统求解整周模糊度进行定向的方法难以直接利用。针对此情况，利用延长基线可改变卫星-天线几何关系的方法，求解载波相位的整周模糊度，化不利为有利，实现双星的快速定向。针对基线在不同区域不同姿态下的仿真表明：当测试条件为基线原长1．5m，延长倍数为4时，载波相位测量精度为1％周，可实现优于0．1。的方位精度和0．05。的俯仰精度，如果延长基线或增加延长倍数，还可取得更高精度，证实了该方法的可行性和高精度性。同时由于该方法的基线安装机构简单可靠，使用时便于展开，因此可应用于环境复杂的快速定向场合。     

IDENTIFICATION OF GYRO DRIFTS UNDER THREE AXIS ATTITUDE COUPLING

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Impact of GPS antenna phase center variations on precise orbits of the GOCE satellite

The first European Space Agency Earth explorer core mission GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) has been launched on March 17, 2009. The 12-channel dual-frequency Global Positioning System receiver delivers 1 Hz data and provides the basis for precise orbit determination (POD) on the few cm-level for such a very low orbiting satellite (254.9 km). As a member of the European GOCE Gravity Consortium, which is responsible for the GOCE High-level Processing Facility (HPF), the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern (AIUB) provides the Precise Science Orbit (PSO) product for the GOCE satellite. The mission requirement for 1-dimensional POD accuracy is 2 cm. The use of in-flight determined antenna phase center variations (PCVs) is necessary to meet this requirement. The PCVs are determined from 154 days of data and the magnitude is up to 3-4 cm. The impact of the PCVs on the orbit determination is significant. The cross-track direction benefits most of the PCVs. The improvement is clearly seen in the orbit overlap analysis and in the validation with independent Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) measurements. It is the first time that SLR could validate the cross-track component of a LEO orbit.     

Generating precise and homogeneous orbits for Jason-1 and Jason-2

Driven by the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and GGOS (Global Geodetic Observing System) initiatives the user community has a strong demand for high-quality altimetry products. In order to derive such high-quality altimetry products, precise orbits for the altimetry satellites are a necessity. With the launch of the TOPEX/Poseidon mission in 1992 a still on-going time series of high-accuracy altimetry measurements of ocean topography started, continued by the altimetry missions Jason-1 in 2001 and Jason-2/OSTM in 2008. This paper contributes to the on-going orbit reprocessing carried out by several groups and presents the efforts of the Navigation Support Office at ESA/ESOC using its NAPEOS software for the generation of precise and homogeneous orbits referring to the same reference frame for the altimetry satellites Jason-1 and Jason-2. Data of all three tracking instruments on-board the satellites (beside the altimeter), i.e. GPS, DORIS, and SLR measurements, were used in a combined data analysis. About 7 years of Jason-1 data and more than 1 year of Jason-2 data were processed. Our processing strategy is close to the GDR-C standards. However, we estimated slightly different scaling factors for the solar radiation pressure model of 0.96 and 0.98 for Jason-1 and Jason-2, respectively. We used 30 s sampled GPS data and introduced 30 s satellite clocks stemming from ESOC’s reprocessing of the combined GPS/GLONASS IGS solution. We present the orbit determination results, focusing on the benefits of adding GPS data to the solution. The fully combined solution was found to give the best orbit results. We reach a post-fit RMS of the GPS phase observation residuals of 6 mm for Jason-1 and 7 mm for Jason-2. The DORIS post-fit residuals clearly benefit from using GPS data in addition, as the DORIS data editing improves. The DORIS observation RMS for the fully combined solution is with 3.5 mm and 3.4 mm, respectively, 0.3 mm better than for the DORIS-SLR solution. Our orbit solution agrees well with external solutions from other analysis centers, as CNES, LCA, and JPL. The orbit differences between our fully combined orbits and the CNES GDR-C orbits are of about 0.8 cm for Jason-1 and at 0.9 cm for Jason-2 in the radial direction. In the cross-track component we observe a clear improvement when adding GPS data to the POD process. The 3D-RMS of the orbit differences reveals a good orbit consistency at 2.7 cm and 2.9 cm for Jason-1 and Jason-2. Our resulting orbit series for both Jason satellites refer to the ITRF2005 reference frame and are provided in sp3 file format on our ftp server.     

基于宽带宽测量的姿态确定方法

针对由飞轮等星上高速旋转部件所引起的高频姿态和指向抖动,提出一种基于磁流体动力学特性的角位移敏感器用于星上高精度宽带宽的微振动测量,以弥补常规姿态测量系统测量频带低,动态范围有限的缺点.介绍以扩展姿态确定带宽为基础的高精度姿态确定方法.给出了以陀螺、星敏及ADS测量信息为基础的宽带宽的姿态确定方法及系统的模型,采用了卡尔曼滤波来确定卫星姿态.仿真分析结果表明存在高频姿态抖动的情况下,宽带宽的姿态确定方法的估计精度优于传统的姿态确定方法,由此验证了宽带宽的姿态确定方法的有效性及精确性.