Development of Kinematic Ephemeris Generator for Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO)

Abstract

This paper presents a kinematic ephemeris generator for Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) and its performance test results. The kinematic ephemeris generator consists of a ground ephemeris compressor and an onboard ephemeris calculator. The ground ephemeris compressor has to compress desired orbit propagation data by using an interpolation method in a ground system. The onboard ephemeris calculator can generate spacecraft ephemeris and the Sun/Moon ephemeris in onboard computer of the KPLO. Among many interpolation methods, polynomial interpolation with uniform node, Chebyshev interpolation, Hermite interpolation are tested for their performances. As a result of the test, it is shown that all the methods have some cases that meet requirements but there are some performance differences. It is also confirmed that, the Chebyshev interpolation shows better performance than other methods for spacecraft ephemeris generation, and the polynomial interpolation with uniform nodes yields good performance for the Sun/Moon ephemeris generation. Based on these results, a Kinematic ephemeris generator is developed for the KPLO mission. Then, the developed ephemeris generator can find an approximating function using interpolation method considering the size and accuracy of the data to be transmitted.

Enhancing ephemeris accuracy in low earth orbit: a Chebyshev polynomial fitting approach during earth's shadow period

“…Broadcast ephemeris serves as a prerequisite for satellite navigation services, and its accuracy directly influences user service quality [7]. In contrast to medium-and high-earth orbit satellites, low-earth orbit satellites operate at significantly lower altitudes, leading to more complex perturbation forces.…”