Configuration space and stability analysis of solar sail near-vertical earth-trailing orbits

Regions outside the reach of traditional propulsion systems or the ones that require significant propellant, may be reached by harnessing the solar radiation pressure and leveraging coupled dynamics to maneuver a sail-based spacecraft. Earth-trailing orbits have recently been investigated for getting a unique perspective of the Sun while maintaining the spacecraft in close proximity to Earth. Vertical orbits trailing the Earth exhibit the additional capability to view the Sun from above and below the ecliptic plane. In this work, families of sail-based orbits are explored for varying Earth-trailing angles and Z amplitudes in the Sun-Earth circular restricted three-body problem. Optimization is carried out to ensure that the non-traditional vertical orbits exhibit a constant pitch angle control history, as well as symmetry across the X-Y plane. The stability of the resulting orbit families is assessed using an extension of Flouquet theory to Differential Algebraic Equations. Results indicate that sail-based Earth-trailing vertical orbits can be more stable than traditional sub-L₁ sail-based vertical orbits.     

DebrisWatch I: A survey of faint geosynchronous debris

Recent anomalies exhibited by satellites and rocket bodies have highlighted that a population of faint debris exists at geosynchronous (GEO) altitudes, where there are no natural removal mechanisms. Despite previous optical surveys probing to around 10–20 cm in size, regular monitoring of faint sources at GEO is challenging, thus our knowledge remains sparse. It is essential that we continue to explore the faint debris population using large telescopes to better understand the risk posed to active GEO satellites. To this end, we present photometric results from a survey of the GEO region carried out with the 2.54 m Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma, Canary Islands. We probe to 21st visual magnitude (around 10 cm, assuming Lambertian spheres with an albedo of 0.1), uncovering 129 orbital tracks with GEO-like motion across the eight nights of dark-grey time comprising the survey. The faint end of our brightness distribution continues to rise until the sensitivity limit of the sensor is reached, suggesting that the modal brightness could be even fainter. We uncover a number of faint, uncatalogued objects that show photometric signatures of rapid tumbling, many of which straddle the limiting magnitude of our survey over the course of a single exposure, posing a complex issue when estimating object size. This work presents the first instalment of DebrisWatch, an ongoing collaboration between the University of Warwick and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (UK) investigating the faint population of GEO debris.     

Track-to-object association algorithm based on TLE filtering

This paper focuses on the track-to-object association problem based on the two-line elements (TLE) set. The TLE’s short-term propagation error characteristics are analyzed to capture its uncertainty. Further, a four-step track-to-object association algorithm is designed for the optical observation data. First, for too-short arc tracklets, a circular orbit determination algorithm is proposed to calculate the inclination and the right ascension of the ascending node. Second, the TLEs are filtered based on these results. Nearly 96% of the TLEs can be filtered, which significantly improves the association efficiency. The last two steps consist of two association processes. A first-order association process is implemented first to get candidate objects, with the angles root mean square error as the metric. Then a precise association process checks the candidate objects and gives the final association result. The proposed approach is tested with simulated and observed data, respectively. With simulated data, the true positive rate is 98.7%. With the observed data, the association results were validated using the precise orbit ephemerides.     

基于浸入与不变理论的航天器姿态跟踪自适应控制

针对惯性参数不确定的航天器姿态跟踪控制问题，基于浸入与不变（I&I）方法设计出了一种新的姿态跟踪控制器。研究结果表明，传统的浸入与不变方法运用到姿态跟踪模型，存在参数回归矩阵不可积进而导致偏微分方程无解析解的问题。针对该问题，提出了一种对回归矩阵改造使其满足可积条件的方法，通过动态放缩技术消除了回归矩阵改造前后的差异对闭环系统稳定性的影响，设计出了一种新的航天器姿态跟踪自适应控制器。通过李雅普诺夫稳定性分析方法证明了所设计的控制器能够保证闭环系统的全局渐近稳定性。相对于已有的基于动态放缩法的浸入与不变控制器，设计了一种全新的缩放因子，使得控制器的执行不需要缩放因子的信息，并且也不需要惯量矩阵的先验信息。最后，仿真对比实验进一步验证了所设计控制器的有效性和优越性。     

Improving the orbits of GPS block IIA satellites during eclipse seasons

During Sun-Earth eclipse seasons, GPS-IIA satellites perform noon, shadow and post-shadow yaw maneuvers. If the yaw maneuvers are not properly taken into account in the orbit determination process, two problems appear: (1) the observations residuals increase since the modeled position of the satellite’s navigation antenna differs from the true position, and (2) the non-conservative forces like solar radiation pressure or Earth radiation pressure are mismodeled due to the wrong orientation of the satellite’s surfaces in space.     

高分七号卫星高精度控制技术与验证

高分七号卫星（GF-7）控制系统，一方面通过研制甚高精度星敏感器和高平稳度翼板驱动机构（SADA），提高部件性能指标；另一方面采用在轨参数标定、星地闭环补偿等控制技术，进一步提高系统性能。经飞行验证表明，控制系统实现了角秒级姿态测量精度，稳定度达到10-5(°)/s量级，与同类型测绘卫星控制系统比较，姿态测量精度和稳定度均达到中国领先、国际先进的水平，使中国遥感测绘卫星控制能力得到了大幅提升。最后展望了GF-7卫星控制分系统进一步提高控制精度的发展方向。     

考虑火箭约束的深空探测弹轨道拼接模型

针对深空探测任务轨迹规划中对于运载火箭弹道约束考虑不足、弹轨道拼接设计效率低的现状,建立了考虑运载火箭射向和末级滑行时间约束的弹轨道拼接计算模型,在无引力摄动假设下得到了任意深空出发速度条件下的运载火箭射向和末级滑行时间计算公式。利用该模型分析了弹轨道可成功拼接的集合范围随深空出发速度、发射场地理位置、火箭射向和滑行时间约束范围的变化规律。提出深空出发"赤纬-发射能量"(δ-C3)图方法,可在图上表示指定型号运载火箭深空发射能力可行域,结合深空轨道转移Pork-Chop图方法,可以快速判断该型运载火箭是否适用于特定深空发射任务。依据这一方法,提出了对我国未来深空探测运载火箭射向和末级滑行时间的能力需求。     

Libration point orbit rendezvous using PWPF modulated terminal sliding mode control

The near-range rendezvous problem of two libration point orbit spacecraft in the Earth–Moon system is studied using the terminal sliding mode control which enables a time-fixed process with the flight time prescribed a priori. The underlying dynamics are the full nonlinear equations of motion for a complete Solar System model. For practical purposes, two means of pulse-width pulse-frequency (PWPF) modulation are employed to realize the theoretical continuous control with a series of thrust pulses. Extensive simulations with major errors taken into account show that the sliding mode controller can successfully guide the chaser to a given staging node with the final position and velocity errors, on average, lower than 20 m and 1 mm/s, respectively. Compared with the glideslope guidance previously studied, the proposed approach outperforms the former by saving approximately 50–60% of total delta-v.     

中低轨红外预警星座基于自由段跟踪的单星覆盖性能

推导了中低轨天基红外星座中单颗卫星基于自由段跟踪时的空域覆盖体积与星下黑体积,研究了其随轨道高度变化的规律,分析了存在切地角影响时的体积变化,并进行了计算。     

Pico-satellite Autonomous Navigation with Magnetometer and Sun Sensor Data

This article presents a near-Earth satellite orbit estimation method for pico-satellite applications with light-weight and low-power requirements. The method provides orbit information autonomously from magnetometer and sun sensor, with an extended Kalman filter (EKF). Real-time position/velocity parameters are estimated with attitude independently from two quantities: the measured magnitude of the Earth’s magnetic field, and the measured dot product of the magnetic field vector and the sun vector. To guarantee the filter’s effectiveness, it is recommended that the sun sensor should at least have the same level of accuracy as magnetometer. Furthermore, to reduce filter’s computation expense, simplification methods in EKF’s Jacobian calculations are introduced and testified, and a polynomial model for fast magnetic field calculation is developed. With these methods, 50% of the computation expense in dynamic model propagation and 80% of the computation burden in measurement model calculation can be reduced. Tested with simulation data and compared with original magnetometer-only methods, filter achieves faster convergence and higher accuracy by 75% and 30% respectively, and the suggested simplification methods are proved to be harmless to filter’s estimation performance.