• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.58-71
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• 2023

This paper describes a navigation system design for horizontal position estimation using inertial measurement sensors and celestial navigation. In space, stars are widely spread objects in the celestial sphere and have been used mainly to obtain attitude information through star observation. However, it is also possible to obtain information about the horizontal position with the altitude of the star. It is called celestial navigation which is the same principle that former navigators used to locate themselves while sailing on the sea. In particular, in deep space where GPS is not available, it is important to obtain information on the location by making use of stars that are relatively easy to observe. Therefore, we introduce a navigation system that can estimate horizontal position and design two types of systems, loosely coupled and tightly coupled depending on how the measurements are utilized. It is intended to help in the future design of navigation system using celestial navigation by simulation studies that not only verify whether the system correctly estimates horizontal position but also comparing the performance of loosely and tightly coupled methods.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.72-78
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• 2007

Determination of the local vertical is not trivial for a moving vehicle and in general will require corrections for the Earth geophysical deflection. The vehicle's local vertical can be estimated by INS integration with initial alignment in SDINS(Strap Down INS) system. In general, the INS has drift error and it cause the performance degradation. In order to compensate the drift error, GPS/INS augmented system is widely used. And in the event that GPS is denied or unavailable, celestial navigation using star tracker can be a backup navigation system especially for the military purpose. In this celestial navigation system, the vehicle's position determination can be achieved using more than two star trackers, and the accuracy of position highly depends on accuracy of local vertical direction. Modern tilt sensors or accelerometers are sensitive to the direction of gravity to arc second(or better) precision. The local gravity provides the direction orthogonal to the geoid and, appropriately corrected, toward the center of the Earth. In this paper the relationship between direction of center of the Earth and actual gravity direction caused by geophysical deflection was analyzed by using precision orbit simulation program embedded the JGM-3 geoid model. And the result was verified and evaluated with mathematical gravity vector model derived from gravitational potential of the Earth. And also for application purpose, the performance variation of pure INS navigation system was analyzed by applying precise gravity model.