Application of CCD drift-scan photoelectric technique on monitoring GEO satellites

Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites are widely used because of their unique characteristics of high-orbit and remaining permanently in the same area of the sky. Precise monitoring of GEO satellites can provide a key reference for the judgment of satellite operation status, the capture and identification of targets, and the analysis of collision warning. The observation using ground-based optical telescopes plays an important role in the field of monitoring GEO targets. Different from distant celestial bodies, there is a relative movement between the GEO target and the background reference stars, which makes the conventional observation method limited for long focal length telescopes. CCD drift-scan photoelectric technique is applied on monitoring GEO targets. In the case of parking the telescope, the good round images of the background reference stars and the GEO target at the same sky region can be obtained through the alternating observation of CCD drift-scan mode and CCD stare mode, so as to improve the precision of celestial positioning for the GEO target. Observation experiments of GEO targets were carried out with 1.56-meter telescope of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory. The results show that the application of CCD drift-scan photoelectric technique makes the precision of observing the GEO target reach the level of 0.2″, which gives full play to the advantage of the long focal length of the telescope. The effect of orbit improvement based on multi-pass of observations is obvious and the prediction precision of extrapolating to 72-h is in the order of several arc seconds in azimuth and elevation.     

RadioAstron orbit determination and evaluation of its results using correlation of space-VLBI observations

A crucial part of a space mission for very-long baseline interferometery (VLBI), which is the technique capable of providing the highest resolution images in astronomy, is orbit determination of the mission’s space radio telescope(s). In order to successfully detect interference fringes that result from correlation of the signals recorded by a ground-based and a space-borne radio telescope, the propagation delays experienced in the near-Earth space by radio waves emitted by the source and the relativity effects on each telescope’s clock need to be evaluated, which requires accurate knowledge of position and velocity of the space radio telescope. In this paper we describe our approach to orbit determination (OD) of the RadioAstron spacecraft of the RadioAstron space-VLBI mission. Determining RadioAstron’s orbit is complicated due to several factors: strong solar radiation pressure, a highly eccentric orbit, and frequent orbit perturbations caused by the attitude control system. We show that in order to maintain the OD accuracy required for processing space-VLBI observations at cm-wavelengths it is required to take into account the additional data on thruster firings, reaction wheel rotation rates, and attitude of the spacecraft. We also investigate into using the unique orbit data available only for a space-VLBI spacecraft, i.e. the residual delays and delay rates that result from VLBI data processing, as a means to evaluate the achieved OD accuracy. We present the results of the first experience of OD accuracy evaluation of this kind, using more than 5000 residual values obtained as a result of space-VLBI observations performed over 7 years of the RadioAstron mission operations.     

Advanced ensemble modeling method for space object state prediction accounting for uncertainty in atmospheric density

For objects in the low Earth orbit region, uncertainty in atmospheric density estimation is an important source of orbit prediction error, which is critical for space traffic management activities such as the satellite conjunction analysis. This paper investigates the evolution of orbit error distribution in the presence of atmospheric density uncertainties, which are modeled using probabilistic machine learning techniques. The recently proposed “HASDM-ML,” “CHAMP-ML,” and “MSIS-UQ” machine learning models for density estimation (Licata and Mehta, 2022b; Licata et al., 2022b) are used in this work. The investigation is convoluted because of the spatial and temporal correlation of the atmospheric density values. We develop several Monte Carlo methods, each capturing a different spatiotemporal density correlation, to study the effects of density uncertainty on orbit uncertainty propagation. However, Monte Carlo analysis is computationally expensive, so a faster method based on the Kalman filtering technique for orbit uncertainty propagation is also explored. It is difficult to translate the uncertainty in atmospheric density to the uncertainty in orbital states under a standard extended Kalman filter or unscented Kalman filter framework. This work uses the so-called “consider covariance sigma point (CCSP)” filter that can account for the density uncertainties during orbit propagation. As a test-bed for validation purposes, a comparison between CCSP and Monte Carlo methods of orbit uncertainty propagation is carried out. Finally, using the HASDM-ML, CHAMP-ML, and MSIS-UQ density models, we propose an ensemble approach for orbit uncertainty quantification for four different space weather conditions.     

星座碰撞规避的迭代学习构型保持方法CSCD

针对低轨卫星星座运行中地球引力摄动的周期特性,基于迭代学习控制(ILC)方法,提出了星座碰撞规避的迭代学习构型保持方法。该方法由反馈控制和ILC两部分构成,分别抑制卫星运行过程中的非周期摄动和周期摄动对构型保持精度的影响,进而在地球非球形引力摄动未知条件下,通过相对构型的精确保持实现对星座卫星碰撞的有效规避。仿真结果表明,在地球J摄动影响下,与传统反馈控制相比,ILC方法以更小的控制输入实现了轨道保持精度的显著提升,进而在星座卫星轨道高度相近的情形下显著降低了碰撞风险,且控制器可在保证收敛性能的前提下,实现启动时间的灵活选择。     

气象海洋卫星地面遥感站

气象海洋卫星地面遥感站主要是用于接收各类气象、海洋、环境卫星的遥感原始数据,并实现数据存储及相关数据处理,从中提取可用的空间环境资料。5.2m天线根据轨道预报捕获并跟踪目标,接收L/S/X三频段射频信号,将信号放大变频后送解调器,解调器从中频信号中恢复出原始遥感数据帧,由记录器对数据进行存储,快视设备实时对原始数据进行去格式处理后显示遥感图像,通过网络传输给各个用户。     

卫星轨道摄动频谱分析

本文基于Ｌｉｅ级数的方法对卫星轨道摄动进行了频谱分析。这种摄动是由地球引力场的所有带谱调和项和田谐调和项引起的。为了适用小偏心率轨道，采用了Ｈｉｌｌ变量来描述卫星轨道，并在所获得的谱分析式中保留了所有与偏心率ｅ无关的项。在这个基础上又经过简单的变换给出了卫星位置摄动三分量的谱分析式。     

交会相对运动确定的新方法

本文叙述空间交会过程中相对运动参数测定的新算法。在测量目标的相对距离和方向的基础上,借助于追踪航天器上的地球敏感器和太阳敏感器,就能直接确定在目标轨道坐标系中相对运动的参数。为此,测量系统可以不含陀螺惯性平台。     

近圆轨道编队飞行星座相对构型稳定性分析

在近圆轨道编队飞行的假设条件下 ,根据动力学关系推导出了环绕卫星相对参考卫星的运动学简化模型 ,并以此简化模型为基础 ,研究了半长轴入轨偏差δa ,轨道倾角偏差δi ,轨道偏心率偏差δe在地球扁率摄动条件下对编队飞行星座相对构型稳定性影响 ,深入分析了各种因素的规律和特点 ,并以此对编队飞行星座轨道设计提出建议。     

空间飞行器追踪区设计

重点介绍了空间飞行器通过一次变轨机动与目标交会的可行机动方案，在对飞行时间普适公式分析的基础上，建立了一般性的轨道转移预测模型， 给出了一种寻求空间飞行器可行变轨点集的方法，并提出了追踪区的概念。通过仿真计算，分别对各种时间和燃料资源限制条件下的追踪区大小变化进行了分析，结果表明，利用该方法求出的变轨点能够满足空间交会对燃料和时间等各方面的要求，且方法简捷，易于实现。