基于中继测量的环月探测器定轨能力分析

嫦娥四号月球探测拟首次实现月球背面的软着陆,测控与数传依赖地月L2平动点的中继卫星,并有望获取四程测量与星间测量数据。对基于中继测量的环月探测器测定轨能力进行了仿真分析,结果表明,中继卫星可较好地实现环月探测器连续跟踪;在定轨能力方面,中继卫星自身轨道精度是制约环月探测器定轨精度的重要因素,当跟踪弧段达到5h以上时,定轨精度趋于稳定,但轨道精度较中继卫星的轨道精度相差1个量级;对于星间链路测量,除中继卫星自身的轨道精度外,星钟的稳定性是制约定轨精度的另一个重要因素,如果辅助以每天1h的地基跟踪亦可实现优于百m的定轨精度。     

低轨航天器天基测控方法研究

我国的航天器测控主要依赖地基测控系统实施,随着民用和军用需求的不断增加,太空运行的低轨航天器数量越来越多.仅依赖地基测控系统满足这些航天器的测控需求越来越困难,费用也越来越高.探索新的、有效且经济的测控模式势在必行.天基测控技术是航天器测控发展的方向,研究和应用天基测控技术具有重要的实用价值,可以解决困扰我国航天领域多年的测控资源紧张问题.在分析美国NASA数据与中继卫星系统相关技术的基础上,提出了我国低轨航天器天地基测控模式,讨论了该模式的运行原理,设计了该模式的仿真系统,分析了应用该模式需解决的关键技术问题,通过基于设计的仿真系统对提出的测控模式进行了验证.验证结果表明了提出的天地基测控模式可行,可以满足低轨航天器的测控需求.      

PROBA-3 mission and the Shadow Position Sensors: Metrology measurement concept and budget

PROBA-3 is a space mission of the European Space Agency that will test, and validate metrology and control systems for autonomous formation flying of two independent satellites. PROBA-3 will operate in a High Elliptic Orbit and when approaching the apogee at 6·10⁴ Km, the two spacecraft will align to realize a giant externally occulted coronagraph named ASPIICS, with the telescope on one satellite and the external occulter on the other one, at inter-satellite distance of 144.3 m. The formation will be maintained over 6 hrs across the apogee transit and during this time different validation operations will be performed to confirm the effectiveness of the formation flying metrology concept, the metrology control systems and algorithms, and the spacecraft manoeuvring. The observation of the Sun’s Corona in the field of view [1.08;3.0]R_Sun will represent the scientific tool to confirm the formation flying alignment. In this paper, we review the mission concept and we describe the Shadow Position Sensors (SPS), one of the metrological systems designed to provide high accuracy (sub-millimetre level) absolute and relative alignment measurement of the formation flying. The metrology algorithm developed to convert the SPS measurements in lateral and longitudinal movement estimation is also described and the measurement budget summarized.     

Towards the automated operations of large distributed satellite systems. Part 2: Classifications and tools

Recent developments have seen a trend towards larger constellations of spacecraft, with some proposals featuring constellations of more than 10.000 satellites. While similar concepts for large constellations already existed in the past, traditional satellite deployments hardly ever feature groups of more than 100 satellites. This trend towards considerably larger satellite numbers originates from non-traditional design and operations of spacecraft by non-traditional space companies. The evolution in the space sector, precipitated by new players, is often referred to as “Space 4.0” or “New Space”. It necessitates a rethinking of the way satellites and satellite constellations are planned, designed, and operated. New operational paradigms are needed to enable automatic, optimal task definition, and scheduling in a holistic approach.This is the second of two companion papers that investigate the operations of distributed satellite systems. This second article investigates the classification of distributed satellite systems and evaluates commercial tools for automated spacecraft operations, whereas the first article performed a survey of conventional and “new space”operations of spacecraft constellations.Classification metrics for constellations are derived and evaluated with respect to their informative value concerning the operation, the automation, and the scalability of the constellation. The proposed classification system is applied to the Dove and RapidEye constellation and allows for a comparison between the presented automation approaches. Commercial tools for automated spacecraft operations are evaluated for several mission task elements, such as orbit control, orbit maintenance, and collision avoidance. Subsequently, the trends, benefits, and standardization needs for operational automation are identified.     

First spaceborne demonstration of BeiDou-3 signals for GNSS reflectometry from CYGNSS constellation

The full constellation of Chinese Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) BeiDou-3 has been deployed completely and started fully operational service. In addition to providing global Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services, the BeiDou-3 satellites transmissions can also be used as the sources of illumination for Earth Observation (EO) with a bistatic radar configuration. This innovative EO concept, known as GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R), allows to measure the Earth surface characteristics at high resolution via the reflected L-band radar signals collected by a constellation of small, low cost and low Earth orbiting satellites. For the first time in orbit, earth reflected BeiDou-3 signal has been detected from the limited sets of raw data collected by the NASA’s Cyclone GNSS (CYGNSS) constellation. The feasibility of spaceborne BeiDou-3 reflections on two typical applications, including sea surface wind and flooding inundation detection, has been demonstrated. The methodology and results give new strength to the prospect of new spaceborne GNSS-R instruments and missions, which can make multi-GNSS reflectometry observations available to better capture rapidly changing weather systems at better spatio-temporal scales.     

High performance motion control for optical satellite tracking systems

This paper investigates the motion control system of an optical telescope system used for precision satellite tracking and ranging applications. The system uses direct-drive permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) for high precision positioning. To overcome the performance limitations due to system dynamics and position dependent plant variations, a disturbance observer based control system is utilized. This paper contributes the detailed analysis, design and implementation of such an advanced control concept for the performance improvement of precision satellite tracking systems. Satellite tracking experiments are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed system. Utilizing the proposed control concept, the RMS servo error is reduced by a factor of 3.8 to well below the arcsecond range, achieving seeing limited tracking.     

低轨卫星的北斗反射信号海洋覆盖分析

北斗系统作为我国自行研制的导航系统，具有独特的混合星座特性，其反射事件在海洋上的空间分布和覆盖性能的研究成果较少。针对上述问题，模拟了北斗三号（Beidou System 3，BDS3）以及全球定位系统（Global Positioning System，GPS）空间星座，模拟不同性能参数的低轨接收卫星，在此仿真系统的基础上，计算反射事件在各仿真场景下的海洋覆盖率以及同时发生反射事件的卫星数量。结果表明：BDS3与GPS相比具有更大的反射事件海洋覆盖率，覆盖性能更优；仿真周期7天与1天相比,前者卫星产生的反射事件海洋覆盖率约为后者5倍；低轨道卫星（Low Earth Orbit,LEO）轨道高度越高，天线波束角度越大，反射事件海洋覆盖率越大；3颗LEO卫星下同时发生反射事件卫星数的平均值约为单颗LEO卫星的3倍。可通过设计多星组网来提高反射事件海洋覆盖率。研究结果对星载反射技术海洋遥感应用方面有一定的参考价值。     

翱翔系列立方星的发展和展望

针对西北工业大学“翱翔”系列立方星在低成本、短周期、快响应的立方星技术方面的突破，介绍了应用于大气层外偏振导航技术试验的世界首颗12U立方星“翱翔之星”，世界首次组网开展低热层大气参数测量的QB50计划“翱翔一号”立方星等，总结了“翱翔”系列立方星的标准化结构设计、姿态控制系统、电源系统、星载计算机、通信与测控、部署器等核心系统的发展现状，介绍了自主研制的飞轮、磁力矩器、偏振敏感器载荷。并基于在轨组装，编队飞行，一箭多星等技术对“翱翔”系列立方星的应用进行了展望，对探索柔性、高精度、长寿命的立方星将有重要的意义。     

A roadmap towards a space-based radio telescope for ultra-low frequency radio astronomy

The past two decades have witnessed a renewed interest in low frequency radio astronomy, with a particular focus on frequencies above 30 MHz e.g., LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) in the Netherlands and its European extension ILT, the International LOFAR Telescope. However, at frequencies below 30 MHz, Earth-based observations are limited due to a combination of severe ionospheric distortions, almost full reflection of radio waves below 10 MHz, solar eruptions and the radio frequency interference (RFI) of human-made signals. Moreover, there are interesting scientific processes which naturally occur at these low frequencies. A space or Lunar-based ultra-low-frequency (also referred to as ultra-long-wavelength, ULW) radio array would suffer significantly less from these limitations and hence would open up the last, virtually unexplored frequency domain in the electromagnetic spectrum.A roadmap has been initiated by astronomers and researchers in the Netherlands to explore the opportunity of building a swarm of satellites to observe at the frequency band below 30 MHz. This roadmap dubbed Orbiting Low Frequency Antennas for Radio Astronomy (OLFAR), a space-based ultra-low frequency radio telescope that will explore the Universe’s so-called dark ages, map the interstellar medium, and study planetary and solar bursts in the solar system and search them in other planetary systems. Such a radio astronomy system will comprise of a swarm of hundreds to thousands of satellites, working together as a single aperture synthesis instrument deployed sufficiently far away from Earth to avoid terrestrial RFI. The OLFAR telescope is a novel and complex system, requiring yet to be proven engineering solutions. Therefore, a number of key technologies are still required to be developed and proven. The first step in this roadmap is the NCLE (Netherlands China Low Frequency Explorer) experiment, which was launched in May 2018 on the Chinese Chang’e 4 mission. The NCLE payload consists of a three monopole antenna system for low frequency observations, from which the first data stream is expected in the second half of 2019, which will provide important feedback for future science and technology opportunities.In this paper, the roadmap towards OLFAR, a brief overview of the science opportunities, and the technological and programmatic challenges of the mission are presented.     

Real-time sensor fault detection and isolation for LEO satellite attitude estimation through magnetometer data

Attitude estimation is a critical component of the Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) of any satellite. It is used to convert the sensor observation data to an estimated attitude using filtering algorithms. However, in the presence of sensor faults, the ADCS fails to achieve the desired attitude accuracy. In this paper, the Fault Tolerant Extended Kalman Filter (FTEKF) is proposed to handle this imperfection. In accordance, various filtering steps are included in the FTEKF design to enhance both attitude estimation and sensor fault detection. The developed algorithm can detect and isolate any unexpected sensor faults in real time, which provides a reliable attitude estimation. A comparative study with the classical and robust Kalman filters is performed through numerical simulations in order to validate the effectiveness of the adopted filter in case of magnetometer fault data.