• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.385-394
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• 2002

Satellite laser ranging is a technique for precisely measuring the range between a laser station and a satellite that is equipped with retro-reflectors. SLR technique was first used for Beacon-B satellite in 1964 with the ranging accuracy of meter level. Now the single shot have centimeter level accuracy and the normal point have mm level in ranging. In this study we developed the algorithm for precise orbit determination using SLR data and performed the orbit determination of GPS-36 satellite using the algorithm. RMS of the estimated orbit was 74cm when compared with IGS precise orbit. It is known that RMS of SLR measurement residual is below 55mm. But we were able to achieve 44mm RMS of residual throughout this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.629-635
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• 2012

This paper presents a performance analysis of the GPS(Global Positioning System) receiver on board in LEO satellites, based on the comparison of its in-orbit performances and corresponding ground test results. An extensive ground tests on the subject GPS receiver has been performed in diverse conditions under the right frame of ground test environments and the analysis of in-orbit performances has also been performed with the huge amount of accumulated GPS data which has been in operation for 6 years since its launch on 2006. For this analysis, we chose three sets of in-orbit data; the data during the early mission period, the data at the 3-year mission completion time, and the most recent in-orbit data. As the performance measures, we selected the position and time synchronization accuracy, and the comparative analysis shows the concurrency between the in-orbit performances and the ground test results with in these performance measures, verifying the validity of the ground test. It is expected that the test configuration and analysis method presented in this paper can be applied to developing and verifying the future Koreanized satellite GPS receivers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• v.1
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• pp.141-144
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• 2006

The deviations in the injection orbital parameters, resulting from launcher dispersions, need to be estimated and used for autonomous satellite operations. For the proposed small satellite mission of the university there will be two GPS receivers onboard the satellite to provide the instantaneous orbital state to the onboard data handling system. In order to meet the power requirements, the satellite will be sun-tracking whenever there is no imaging operation. For imaging activities, the satellite will be maneuvered to nadir-pointing mode. Due to such different modes of orientation the geometry for the GPS receivers will not be favorable at all times and there will be instances of poor geometry resulting in no output from the GPS receivers. Onboard the satellite, the orbital information should be continuously available for autonomous switching on/off of various subsystems. The paper presents the strategies to make use of small arcs of data from GPS receivers to compute the mean orbital parameters and use the updated orbital parameters to calculate the position and velocity whenever the same is not available from GPS receiver. Thus the navigation message from the GPS receiver, namely the position vector in Earth-Centered-Earth-Fixed (ECEF) frame, is used as measurements. As for estimation, two techniques - (1) batch least squares method, and (2) Kalman Filter method are used for orbit estimation (in real time). The performance of the onboard orbit estimation has been assessed based on hardware based multi-channel GPS Signal simulator. The results indicate good converge even with short arcs of data as the GPS navigation data are generally very accurate and the data rate is also fast (typically 1Hz).

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.588-590
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• 2003

For the normal operations, KOMPSAT-1 orbits are determined using GPS navigation solutions data such as position and velocity vectors. Currently, the accuracy of GPS navigation solution data is generally known as on the order of 10~30 m with the removal of S/A. In this paper, an estimate of the current orbit determination accuracy for the KOMPSAT-1 is given. For the evaluation of orbit determination accuracy, the orbit overlap comparison is used since no independent orbits of comparable accuracy are available for comparison. As a result, It is shown that the orbit accuracy is on the order of 5 m RMS with 4 hrs arc overlap for the 30 hr arc.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.221-232
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• 2004

Gauss method for the initial orbit determination was tested using angle-only data obtained by orbit propagation using TLB and SGP4/SDP4 orbit propagation model.. As the analysis of this simulation, a feasible time span between observation time of satellite resulting the minimum error to the true orbit was found. Initial orbit determination is performed using observational data of GPS 26 and Koreasat 2 from 0.6m telescope of KAO(Korea Astronomy Observatory) and precise orbit determination is also performed using simulated data. The result of precise orbit determination shows that the accuracy of resulting orbit is related to the accuracy of the observations and the number of data.

• Journal of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2012

Precise Point Positioning (PPP) has been widely used in navigation and orbit determination applications as we can obtain precise Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite orbit and clock products. Kinematic PPP, which is based on the GPS measurements only from the spaceborne GPS receiver, has some advantages for a simple precise orbit determination (POD). In this study, we developed kinematic PPP technique to estimate the orbits of GRACE-A satellite. The comparison of the mean position between the JPL's orbit product and our results showed the orbit differences 0.18 cm, 0.54 cm, and 0.98 cm in the Radial, in Along-track, and Cross-track direction respectively. In addition, we obtained the root mean square (rms) values of 4.06 cm, 3.90 cm, and 3.23 cm in the satellite coordinate components relative to the known coordinates.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.388-392
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• 1996

Orbit Determination is process of obtaining values of those parameter which completely specify the motion of an orbiting body through space, based on a set of observation of the body. For the narrow land of Korea, the ground tracking system has very limited time of operation. In this connection the use of GPS for orbit determination has advantage of full autonomy on the ground station. It would be more powerful economical method for near-earth satellites. Therfore we have better to pay attention to the research of satellites of orbit determination by use of GPS. So in this research, we studied themotion of the satellites with estimation using GPS. As a result, the result of computer simulation show that good convergence and indicated effective for real operation.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.89-98
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• 2009

In this study, the YLPODS (Yonsei Laser-ranging Precision Orbit Determination System) is developed for POD using SLR (Satellite Laser Ranging) NP (Normal Point) observations. The performance of YLPODS is tested using SLR NP observations of TOPEX/POSEIDON and CHAMP satellite. JPL's POE (Precision Orbit Ephemeris) is assumed to be true orbit, the measurement residual RMS (Root Mean Square) and the orbit accuracy (radial, along-track, cross-track) are investigated. The validation of POD using GPS (Global Positioning System) raw data is achieved by YLPODS performance and highly accurate SLR NP observations. YGPODS (Yonsei GPS-based Precision Orbit Determination System) is used for generating GPS based precise orbits for TOPEX/POSEIDON. The initial orbit for YLPODS is derived from the YGPODS results. To validate the YGPODS results the range residual of the first adjustment of YLPODS is investigated. The YLPODS results using SLR NP observations of TOPEX/POSEIDON and CHAMP satellite show that the range residual is less than 10 cm and the orbit accuracy is about 1 m level. The validation results of the YGPODS orbits using SLR NP observations of the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite show that the range residual is less than 10 cm. This result predicts that the accuracy of this GPS based orbits is about 1m level and it is compared with JPL's POE. Thus this result presents that the YLPODS can be used for POD validation using SLR NP observations such as STSAT-2 and KOMPSAT-5.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.499-510
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• 2009

In this paper, relative orbit of Low Earth Orbit satellites is determined using only GPS measurements and the effects of Equatorial Spread-F (ESF), that is one of biggest ionospheric irregularities, are investigated. First, relative orbit determiation process is constructed based on doubly differenced GPS observations. In order to see orbit determination performance, relative orbit of two GRACE satellites is estimated for one month in 2004 when no ESF is observed. The root mean square of the achieved baselines compared with that from K-Band Ranger sensor is about 2~3 mm and average of 95% of ambiguities are resolved. Based on this performance, the relative orbit is estimated for two weeks of two difference years, 2003 when there are lots of ESF occurred, and 2004 when only few ESF occurred. For 2003, the averaged baseline error over two weeks is about 15 mm. That is about 4 times larger than the case of 2004 (3.6 mm). Ionospheric status achieved from K-Band Ranging sensor also shows that more Equatorial Spread-F occurred at 2003 than 2004. Investigation on raw observations and screening process revealed that the ionospheric irregualarities caused by Equatorial Spread-F gave significant effects on GPS signal like signal loss or enhancement ionospheric error, From this study, relative orbit determination using GPS observations should consider the effect of Equatorial Spread-F and adjust orbit determination strategy, especially at the time of solar maximum.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.163-172
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• 2002

This article investigates the problem of data preprocessing for the precision orbit determination (POD) of low earth orbit satellite using GPS .aw data. Several data preprocessing algorithms have been developed to edit the GPS data automatically such that outlier deletion, cycle slip identification and correction, and time tag error correction. The GPS data are precisely edited for the accuracy of POD. Some methods of data preprocessing are restricted to the rate of the collections of the pseudorange and carrier phase measurements. This study considers the preprocessing efficiency varied with the rate, the quality of receiver and the altitude of the satellite's orbit. We also propose the proper methods in accordance with the rate for single frequency and dual frequency receivers.