Relative Navigation with Intermittent Laser-based Measurement for Spacecraft Formation Flying

This study designs and analyzes satellite formation flying concepts for the Small scale magNetospheric and Ionospheric Plasma Experiments (SNIPE) mission, that will observe the near-Earth space environment using four nanosats. To meet the requirements to achieve the scientific objectives of the SNIPE mission, three formation flying concepts are analyzed: a crossshape formation, a square-shape formation, and a cross-track formation. Of the three formation flying scenarios, the crosstrack formation scenario is selected as the final scenario for the SNIPE mission. The result of this study suggests a relative orbit control scenario for formation maintenance and reconfiguration, and the initial relative orbits of the four nanosats meeting the formation requirements and thrust limitations of the SNIPE mission. The formation flying scenario is validated by calculating the accumulated total thrust required for the four nanosats. If the cross-track formation scenario presented in this study is applied to the SNIPE mission, it is expected that the mission will be successfully accomplished.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanosat Formation Flying Design for SNIPE Mission

Kang¹,

Song²,

Park³

2020

“…A femtosecond laser device that can be installed on the simulators to measure the range between the simulators is also being developed. Although laser ranging has been used extensively for satellite laser ranging (SLR) (Jo et al 2011;Lim et al 2011;Choi et al 2014;Kim et al 2015;Oh et al 2017), the technique can also be employed for measuring an inter-satellite distance (Jung et al 2012;Lee et al 2018). In this study, it was assumed that the satellite navigation algorithms were properly performed to figure out satellite's position and velocity vectors (Oh et al 2016;Shin et al 2016;Kim et al 2017;Lee et al 2017a, b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Inter-satellite Ranging Precision for Gravity Recovery in a Satellite Gravimetry Mission

Kim

Park²,

Kang

et al. 2018

In a satellite gravimetry mission similar to GRACE, the precision of inter-satellite ranging is one of the key factors affecting the quality of gravity field recovery. In this paper, the impact of ranging precision on the accuracy of recovered geopotential coefficients is analyzed. Simulated precise orbit determination (POD) data and inter-satellite range data of formation-flying satellites containing white noise were generated, and geopotential coefficients were recovered from these simulated data sets using the crude acceleration approach. The accuracy of the recovered coefficients was quantitatively compared between data sets encompassing different ranging precisions. From this analysis, a rough prediction of the accuracy of geopotential coefficients could be obtained from the hypothetical mission. For a given POD precision, a ranging measurement precision that matches the POD precision was determined. Since the purpose of adopting inter-satellite ranging in a gravimetry mission is to overcome the imprecision of determining orbits, ranging measurements should be more precise than POD. For that reason, it can be concluded that this critical ranging precision matching the POD precision can serve as the minimum precision requirement for an on-board ranging device. Although the result obtained herein is about a very particular case, this methodology can also be applied in cases where different parameters are used.

“…The algorithms were verified using theoretically simulated laser measurement data that did not consider the hardware properties of the instrument. Lee et al (2018) presented relative navigation using intermittent laser-based measurement data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of Relative Navigation Algorithms Using Laser Measurements and Laser-GPS Combined Measurements

Kang

Park²,

Son

2018

This paper presents a satellite relative navigation strategy for formation flying, which chooses an appropriate navigation algorithm according to the operating environment. Not only global positioning system (GPS) measurements, but laser measurements can also be utilized to determine the relative positions of satellites. Laser data is used solely or together with GPS measurements. Numerical simulations were conducted to compare the relative navigation algorithm using only laser data and laser data combined with GPS data. If an accurate direction of laser pointing is estimated, the relative position of satellites can be determined using only laser measurements. If not, the combined algorithm has better performance, and is irrelevant to the precision of the relative angle data between two satellites in spherical coordinates. Within 10 km relative distance between satellites, relative navigation using double difference GPS data makes more precise relative position estimation results. If the simulation results are applied to the relative navigation strategy, the proper algorithm can be chosen, and the relative position of satellites can be estimated precisely in changing mission environments.