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At least 127 records · Page 7

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NASA NTRS1992

Demonstration of orbit determination using same-beam interferometry for Magellan and Pioneer 12

Orbit determination results are presented for Magellan and Pioneer 12 utilizing same-beam interferometer (SBI) data, which is a new data type for planetary orbiter navigation. The orbit determination data employing this data type, based on orbit-to-orbit consistency, has been explained in terms of nominal error models. Results show the orbit determination accuracy for Pioneer 12 using Doppler plus SBI data to be better than the accuracy utilizing only Doppler data by 30 percent.

Folkner, W. M.↗

NASA NTRS1994

TDRS orbit determination by radio interferometry

In support of a NASA study on the application of radio interferometry to satellite orbit determination, MITRE developed a simulation tool for assessing interferometry tracking accuracy. The Orbit Determination Accuracy Estimator (ODAE) models the general batch maximum likelihood orbit determination algorithms of the Goddard Trajectory Determination System (GTDS) with the group and phase delay measurements from radio interferometry. ODAE models the statistical properties of tracking error sources, including inherent observable imprecision, atmospheric delays, clock offsets, station location uncertainty, and measurement biases, and through Monte Carlo simulation, ODAE calculates the statistical properties of errors in the predicted satellites state vector. This paper presents results from ODAE application to orbit determination of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) by radio interferometry. Conclusions about optimal ground station locations for interferometric tracking of TDRS are presented, along with a discussion of operational advantages of radio interferometry.

Pavloff, Michael S.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Orbit Determination for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Using an Extended Kalman Filter

Since launch, the FDF has performed daily OD for LRO using the Goddard Trajectory Determination System (GTDS). GTDS is a batch least-squares (BLS) estimator. The tracking data arc for OD is 36 hours. Current operational OD uses 200 x 200 lunar gravity, solid lunar tides, solar radiation pressure (SRP) using a spherical spacecraft area model, and point mass gravity for the Earth, Sun, and Jupiter. LRO tracking data consists of range and range-rate measurements from: Universal Space Network (USN) stations in Sweden, Germany, Australia, and Hawaii. A NASA antenna at White Sands, New Mexico (WS1S). NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) stations. DSN data was sparse and not included in this study. Tracking is predominantly (50) from WS1S. The OD accuracy requirements are: Definitive ephemeris accuracy of 500 meters total position root-mean-squared (RMS) and18 meters radial RMS. Predicted orbit accuracy less than 800 meters root sum squared (RSS) over an 84-hour prediction span.

LRO↗

NASA NTRS2007

Orbit Determination Analysis Utilizing Radiometric and Laser Ranging Measurements for GPS Orbit

While navigation systems for the determination of the orbit of the Global Position System (GPS) have proven to be very effective, the current issues involve lowering the error in the GPS satellite ephemerides below their current level. In this document, the results of an orbit determination covariance assessment are provided. The analysis is intended to be the baseline orbit determination study comparing the benefits of adding laser ranging measurements from various numbers of ground stations. Results are shown for two starting longitude assumptions of the satellite location and for nine initial covariance cases for the GPS satellite state vector.

Welch, Bryan W.↗

NASA NTRS2006

13 Years of TOPEX/POSEIDON Precision Orbit Determination and the 10-fold Improvement in Expected Orbit Accuracy

Launched in the summer of 1992, TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) was a joint mission between NASA and the Centre National d Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French Space Agency, to make precise radar altimeter measurements of the ocean surface. After the remarkably successful 13-years of mapping the ocean surface T/P lost its ability to maneuver and was de-commissioned January 2006. T/P revolutionized the study of the Earth s oceans by vastly exceeding pre-launch estimates of surface height accuracy recoverable from radar altimeter measurements. The precision orbit lies at the heart of the altimeter measurement providing the reference frame from which the radar altimeter measurements are made. The expected quality of orbit knowledge had limited the measurement accuracy expectations of past altimeter missions, and still remains a major component in the error budget of all altimeter missions. This paper describes critical improvements made to the T/P orbit time series over the 13-years of precise orbit determination (POD) provided by the GSFC Space Geodesy Laboratory. The POD improvements from the pre-launch T/P expectation of radial orbit accuracy and Mission requirement of 13-cm to an expected accuracy of about 1.5-cm with today s latest orbits will be discussed. The latest orbits with 1.5 cm RMS radial accuracy represent a significant improvement to the 2.0-cm accuracy orbits currently available on the T/P Geophysical Data Record (GDR) altimeter product.

Lemoine, F. G.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Sensitivity of high-accuracy Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) user spacecraft orbit determination to tracking schedules

The results of a study to analyze the dependence of TDRSS user spacecraft orbit determination consistencies on varying tracking schedules are presented. In this study, the TDRS-East orbit determination results obtained utilizing Bilateration Ranging Transponder System data were evaluated. Six state parameters, three position and three velocity components and the solar radiation pressure coefficient, are estimated for TDRS-East. It is concluded that, in order to achieve high-precision orbit determination, the tracking coverage should not fall below 10 minutes every two orbits as decreasing it to every four orbits will significantly degrade the accuracy; present state-of-the-art consistency in orbit determination using TDRSS tracking is approximately 15 to 20 meters.

Doll, C. E.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Semi-Major Axis Knowledge and GPS Orbit Determination

In recent years spacecraft designers have increasingly sought to use onboard Global Positioning System receivers for orbit determination. The superb positioning accuracy of GPS has tended to focus more attention on the system's capability to determine the spacecraft's location at a particular epoch than on accurate orbit determination, per se. The determination of orbit plane orientation and orbit shape to acceptable levels is less challenging than the determination of orbital period or semi-major axis. It is necessary to address semi-major axis mission requirements and the GPS receiver capability for orbital maneuver targeting and other operations that require trajectory prediction. Failure to determine semi-major axis accurately can result in a solution that may not be usable for targeting the execution of orbit adjustment and rendezvous maneuvers. Simple formulas, charts, and rules of thumb relating position, velocity, and semi-major axis are useful in design and analysis of GPS receivers for near circular orbit operations, including rendezvous and formation flying missions. Space Shuttle flights of a number of different GPS receivers, including a mix of unfiltered and filtered solution data and Standard and Precise Positioning Service modes, have been accomplished. These results indicate that semi-major axis is often not determined very accurately, due to a poor velocity solution and a lack of proper filtering to provide good radial and speed error correlation.

Carpenter, J. Russell↗

NASA NTRS2000

Semi-Major Axis Knowledge and GPS Orbit Determination

In recent years spacecraft designers have increasingly sought to use onboard Global Positioning System receivers for orbit determination. The superb positioning accuracy of GPS has tended to focus more attention on the system's capability to determine the spacecraft's location at a particular epoch than on accurate orbit determination, per se. The determination of orbit plane orientation and orbit shape to acceptable levels is less challenging than the determination of orbital period or semi-major axis. It is necessary to address semi-major axis mission requirements and the GPS receiver capability for orbital maneuver targeting and other operations that require trajectory prediction. Failure to determine semi-major axis accurately can result in a solution that may not be usable for targeting the execution of orbit adjustment and rendezvous maneuvers. Simple formulas, charts, and rules of thumb relating position, velocity, and semi-major axis are useful in design and analysis of GPS receivers for near circular orbit operations, including rendezvous and formation flying missions. Space Shuttle flights of a number of different GPS receivers, including a mix of unfiltered and filtered solution data and Standard and Precise Positioning, Service modes, have been accomplished. These results indicate that semi-major axis is often not determined very accurately, due to a poor velocity solution and a lack of proper filtering to provide good radial and speed error correlation.

Carpenter, J. Russell↗

NASA NTRS1987

Galilean satellite tour orbit determination assessment

Results are given which demonstrate the ability of the orbit determination system to satisfy accuracy requirements in support of the Galileo Project's planned tour of Jupiter's satellites. The results are derived through the application of mission operation strategies and assumptions. It is shown that the achievement of the requisite orbit determination accuracies is predicated on the availability of optical navigation data. It is further demonstrated that the unavailability of tour optical navigation data yields not only degraded orbit determination accuracies which fail to meet propellant budget and science instrument pointing requirements, but also produces, for the planned 200 km flyby of Europa, an approximate 0.02 risk of having the spacecraft collide with the satellite.

Moultrie, B.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Ionospheric refraction effects on TOPEX orbit determination accuracy using the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS)

This investigation concerns the effects on Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX) spacecraft operational orbit determination of ionospheric refraction error affecting tracking measurements from the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). Although tracking error from this source is mitigated by the high frequencies (K-band) used for the space-to-ground links and by the high altitudes for the space-to-space links, these effects are of concern for the relatively high-altitude (1334 kilometers) TOPEX mission. This concern is due to the accuracy required for operational orbit-determination by the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and to the expectation that solar activity will still be relatively high at TOPEX launch in mid-1992. The ionospheric refraction error on S-band space-to-space links was calculated by a prototype observation-correction algorithm using the Bent model of ionosphere electron densities implemented in the context of the Goddard Trajectory Determination System (GTDS). Orbit determination error was evaluated by comparing parallel TOPEX orbit solutions, applying and omitting the correction, using the same simulated TDRSS tracking observations. The tracking scenarios simulated those planned for the observation phase of the TOPEX mission, with a preponderance of one-way return-link Doppler measurements. The results of the analysis showed most TOPEX operational accuracy requirements to be little affected by space-to-space ionospheric error. The determination of along-track velocity changes after ground-track adjustment maneuvers, however, is significantly affected when compared with the stringent 0.1-millimeter-per-second accuracy requirements, assuming uncoupled premaneuver and postmaneuver orbit determination. Space-to-space ionospheric refraction on the 24-hour postmaneuver arc alone causes 0.2 millimeter-per-second errors in along-track delta-v determination using uncoupled solutions. Coupling the premaneuver and postmaneuver solutions, however, appears likely to reduce this figure substantially. Plans and recommendations for response to these findings are presented.

Radomski, M. S.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Orbit Determination for the James Webb Space Telescope During Launch and Early Orbit

The NASA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission successfully launched on December 25, 2021, at 12:20 UTC. This paper details several novel challenges encountered in the orbit determination (OD) of JWST during the launch and early orbit. The first OD solution used only 6.5 hours of tracking data, much less than the 24 hours of data usually required for libration orbiters on an outbound trajectory. In addition, the observatory area exposed to solar radiation pressure changed through a series of sunshield deployments while concurrent momentum unloads and attitude telemetry outages occurred. This paper covers how the Flight Dynamics Team (FDT) prepared for these challenges, how these challenges were handled on-orbit, and the performance of the resulting OD solutions.

Orbit Determination↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Orbit Determination For The James Webb Space Telescope During Launch And Early Orbit

Orbit Determination↗

NASA NTRS1990

High-precision orbit determination for high-earth elliptical orbiters using the Global Positioning System

Orbit covariance analyses pertaining to the Japanese VLBI Space Observatory Program (VSOP) MUSES-B satellite and to the International VLBI Satellite are presented. It is determined that a combination of Doppler and GPS measurements can provide the orbit accuracy required to support advanced radio interferometric experiments. For the VSOP, the required orbit accuracy of 130 m is easily met with two-way Doppler as the primary type of data; the 0.4 cm/s VSOP velocity requirement is also feasible provided that precise ground calibrations of tropospheric delays and station coordinates are available. It is concluded that combining the data from a VSOP GPS flight instrument with the ground GPS and two-way Doppler data will significantly enhance orbit determination accuracy in position and velocity.

Lichten, S. M.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Preliminary Orbit Determination System (PODS) for Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS)-tracked target Spacecraft using the homotopy continuation method

The Preliminary Orbit Determination System (PODS) provides early orbit determination capability in the Trajectory Computation and Orbital Products System (TCOPS) for a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS)-tracked spacecraft. PODS computes a set of orbit states from an a priori estimate and six tracking measurements, consisting of any combination of TDRSS range and Doppler tracking measurements. PODS uses the homotopy continuation method to solve a set of nonlinear equations, and it is particularly effective for the case when the a priori estimate is not well known. Since range and Doppler measurements produce multiple states in PODS, a screening technique selects the desired state. PODS is executed in the TCOPS environment and can directly access all operational data sets. At the completion of the preliminary orbit determination, the PODS-generated state, along with additional tracking measurements, can be directly input to the differential correction (DC) process to generate an improved state. To validate the computational and operational capabilities of PODS, tests were performed using simulated TDRSS tracking measurements for the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite and using real TDRSS measurements for the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) and the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME) spacecraft. The effects of various measurement combinations, varying arc lengths, and levels of degradation of the a priori state vector on the PODS solutions were considered.

Kirschner, S. M.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 Saturn encounter orbit determination

This paper contains quantitative results and conclusions from the Saturn approach orbit determination for Voyagers 1 and 2. The major topics covered include an overview of the navigation-related requirements and a review of the salient orbit determination results obtained. Special attention is paid to the use of combined spacecraft-based optical observations and earth-based radiometric observations to achieve accurate orbit determination during the Saturn encounter approach phase.

Campbell, J. K.↗

NASA NTRS2016

An Independent Orbit Determination Simulation for the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

After arriving at the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu in late 2018, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will execute a series of observation campaigns and orbit phases to accurately characterize Bennu and ultimately collect a sample of pristine regolith from its surface. While in the vicinity of Bennu, the OSIRIS-REx navigation team will rely on a combination of ground-based radiometric tracking data and optical navigation (OpNav) images to generate and deliver precision orbit determination products. Long before arrival at Bennu, the navigation team is performing multiple orbit determination simulations and thread tests to verify navigation performance and ensure interfaces between multiple software suites function properly. In this paper, we will summarize the results of an independent orbit determination simulation of the Orbit B phase of the mission performed to test the interface between the OpNav image processing and orbit determination software packages.

Orbit↗

NASA NTRS1988

Orbit determination requirements for Topex

The orbit determination requirements for the Ocean Topography Experiment (Topex/Poseidon) are discussed. A radial orbit accuracy of 13 cm for a period of three to five years is required for the mission. The factors which limit the orbit accuracy for the geopotential, the solar radiation pressure, and the atmospheric drag model are examined. Also, the effects introduced by variations with aspect angle in the spacecraft area-to-mass ratio are considered.

Tapley, B. D.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Strategies for high-precision Global Positioning System orbit determination

Various strategies for the high-precision orbit determination of the GPS satellites are explored using data from the 1985 GPS field test. Several refinements to the orbit determination strategies were found to be crucial for achieving high levels of repeatability and accuracy. These include the fine tuning of the GPS solar radiation coefficients and the ground station zenith tropospheric delays. Multiday arcs of 3-6 days provided better orbits and baselines than the 8-hr arcs from single-day passes. Highest-quality orbits and baselines were obtained with combined carrier phase and pseudorange solutions.

Lichten, Stephen M.↗