无动力自动着陆轨道的鲁棒性分析

文中定义了能量梯度的概念,作为评价能量积累和消耗能力的指标。针对跨大气层飞行器对象特性的特点,重点讨论了气动参数的不确定性存在时的着陆点性能、整个下滑轨道容许的气动参数的不确定性范围和对初始动压的抑制能力,结果表明下滑轨道具有较好的鲁棒性。     

多级航天器在有限推力情况下的最优变轨问题探讨

与航天运载器类似,航天器也可以有单级与多级之分。一个多级航天器是由几个具有动力装置的航天器经串联而成的组合体。本文研究这类航天器的最优变轨问题。多级航天器在有限推力情况下的最优变轨问题,实质上属于多级最优控制问题。本文应用多级最优控制问题的求解原理,讨论有限推力情况下,两级航天器在两共面圆轨道之间的两类最优转移问题,给出了确定最优推力程序和最优转移轨迹的定解方程和定解条件,特别考察了级间分离时刻应满足的条件。本文给出的原理同样适用于非圆形、非共面轨道之间的最优转移问题。     

升交点赤经与轨道倾角对地球同步卫星地影的影响

为精确预报地球同步卫星地影，根据其发生原理用仿真分析法研究了升交点赤经和轨道倾角两个因素对地影的影响，给出了地影延续时间和最长日期变化等天数曲线。在实际的同步卫星长期管理中运用这些规律，取得了良好的效果。     

Galileo real-time orbit determination with multi-frequency raw observations

Real-time GNSS-based applications require corresponding real-time orbit products. While traditional GNSS orbits are generated with the dual-frequency IF (Ionosphere-Free) model, the increase of multi-frequency signal satellites brings new challenges for the data processing. Therefore, real-time orbit determination with the multi-frequency UC (Uncombined) model is introduced in this study considering its flexibility. With the derived mathematical model conforming to IGS (International GNSS Service) dual-frequency clock definition and one-week triple-frequency Galileo observation data from 90 IGS network stations, the convergence and accuracy of real-time orbits is assessed and the characteristics of satellite IFCB (Inter-Frequency Clock Bias) are analyzed. Results indicate that the model differences, including dual-frequency IF model, dual-frequency UC model and triple-frequency UC model, contribute to only cm-level differences with CODE (Center for Orbit Determination in Europe) final orbits after a convergence time of around 12 h. The constellation-mean RMS (Root Mean Square) differences of the converged real-time orbits with the CODE final orbits reaches about 5.0 cm, 7.0 cm and 5.0 cm for the radial, tangential and normal directions. The convergence of satellite IFCB is much faster than that of satellite orbit, which reflects a loose correlation between these two parameters. While the Galileo satellite IFCB are temporally stable, the modeling of satellite IFCB may be unreliable when over constrained and becomes even more unstable with commonly encountered datum changes. In summary, real-time GNSS orbit determination with multi-frequency raw observations is feasible and extendable with proper treatment of IFCB.     

ESA’s process for the identification and assessment of high-risk conjunction events

ESA’s Space Debris Office provides an operational service for the assessment of collision risks of ESA satellites. Currently, the ENVISAT and ERS-2 missions in low Earth orbits are covered by this service. If an upcoming high-risk conjunction event is predicted based on analysis of Two-Line Element (TLE) data from the US Space Surveillance Network, then independent tracking data of the potential high-risk conjunction object are acquired to improve the knowledge of its orbit. This improved knowledge and the associated small error covariances derived from the orbit determination process scale down the position error ellipsoid at the conjunction epoch. Hence, for the same miss-distance, in most cases an avoidance manoeuvre can be suppressed with an acceptable residual risk.     

The influence of orbital maneuver on autonomous orbit determination of an extended satellite navigation constellation

The right ascension of the ascending node is unobservable if only the inter-satellite ranging is used for autonomous orbit determination (AOD) of an Earth navigation constellation. However, if an Earth-Moon libration point satellite is added to the Earth navigation constellation to construct an extended navigation constellation, all the orbital elements can be determined with only the inter-satellite ranging. Furthermore, the extended navigation constellation can provide navigation information for interplanetary probes. For such an extended navigation constellation, orbital control needs to be considered due to the instability of the libration-point satellite orbit. This study concerns the influence of satellite orbital maneuver on the AOD of the extended navigation constellation. An AOD method under orbital maneuver is proposed. A low thrust controller is designed to achieve libration point satellite autonomous orbit maintenance by using AOD results. A navigation constellation consisting of three GPS satellites and one libration point satellite are designed for simulation. The simulation results show that libration point satellites can achieve autonomous navigation and autonomous orbit maintenance by only using inter-satellite ranging information. The rotation drift error of the Earth navigation constellation is also suppressed.     

End-to-end trajectory design for a solar-sail-only pole-sitter at Venus,Earth, and Mars

The concept of a pole-sitter has been under investigation for many years, showing the capability of a low-thrust propulsion system to maintain a spacecraft at a static position along a planet’s polar axis. From such a position, the spacecraft has a view of the planet’s polar regions equivalent to that of the low- and mid-latitudes from geostationary orbit. Previous work has hinted at the existence of pole-sitters that would only require a solar sail to provide the necessary propulsive thrust if a slight deviation from a position exactly along the polar axis is allowed, without compromising on the continuous view of the planet’s polar region (a so-called quasi-pole-sitter). This paper conducts a further in-depth analysis of these high-potential solar-sail-only quasi-pole-sitters and presents a full end-to-end trajectory design: from launch and transfer to orbit design and orbit control. The results are the next steppingstone towards strengthening the feasibility and utility of these orbits for continuous planetary polar observation.     

Improving orbit prediction accuracy through supervised machine learning

Due to the lack of information such as the space environment condition and resident space objects’ (RSOs’) body characteristics, current orbit predictions that are solely grounded on physics-based models may fail to achieve required accuracy for collision avoidance and have led to satellite collisions already. This paper presents a methodology to predict RSOs’ trajectories with higher accuracy than that of the current methods. Inspired by the machine learning (ML) theory through which the models are learned based on large amounts of observed data and the prediction is conducted without explicitly modeling space objects and space environment, the proposed ML approach integrates physics-based orbit prediction algorithms with a learning-based process that focuses on reducing the prediction errors. Using a simulation-based space catalog environment as the test bed, the paper demonstrates three types of generalization capability for the proposed ML approach: (1) the ML model can be used to improve the same RSO’s orbit information that is not available during the learning process but shares the same time interval as the training data; (2) the ML model can be used to improve predictions of the same RSO at future epochs; and (3) the ML model based on a RSO can be applied to other RSOs that share some common features.