• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.11-20
• /
• 2003

A method for estimating the NORAD SGP4 atmospheric drag term from minimum osculating orbit states, i.e., two osculating orbits, is developed. The first osculating orbit state is converted into the NORAD TLE-type mean orbit state by iterative procedure. Then the converted TLE is propagated to the second orbit state using the SGP4 model with the incremental SGP4 drag term. The iterative orbit propagation procedure is finished when the difference of the two osculating semi-major axes between the propagated orbit and the given second orbit is minimized. In order to minimize the effect of the short-term variations of the osculating semi-major axis, the osculating argument of latitude of the second orbit is propagated to the same argument of latitude of the first orbit. The method is applied to the estimation of the NORAD-type TLE for the KOMPSAT-1 spacecraft. The SGP4 drag terms are estimated from both NORAD SGP4 orbit propagation and the numerical orbit propagation results. Variations of the estimated drag terms are analyzed for the KOMPSAT-1 satellite orbit determination results.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.243-248
• /
• 2005

NORAD Two Line Element (TLE) is very useful to simplify the ground station antenna pointing and mission operations. When a satellite operations facility has the capability to determine NORAD type TLE which is independent of NORAD, it is important to analyze the applicable tracking data arcs for obtaining the best possible orbit. The applicable tracking data arcs for NORAD independent TLE orbit determination of the KOMPSAT-1 using GPS navigation solutions was analyzed for the best possible orbit determination and propagation results. Data spans of the GPS navigation solutions from 1 day to 5 days were used for TLE orbit determination and the results were used as Initial orbit for SGP4 orbit propagation. The operational orbit determination results using KOMPSAT-1 Mission Analysis and Planning System(MAPS) were used as references for the comparisons. The best-matched orbit determination was obtained when 3 days of GPS navigation solutions were used. The resulting 4 days of orbit propagation results were within 2 km of the KOMPSAI-1 MAPS results.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.159-166
• /
• 1999

As the spatial resolution of remote sensing satellites becomes higher, very accurate determination of the position of a LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite is demanding more than ever. Non-symmetric Earth gravity is the major perturbation force to LEO satellites. Since the orbit propagation is performed in the celestial frame while Earth gravity is defined in the terrestrial frame, it is required to convert the coordinates of the satellite from one to the other accurately. Unless the coordinate conversion between the two frames is performed accurately the orbit propagation calculates incorrect Earth gravitational force at a specific time instant, and hence, causes errors in orbit prediction. The coordinate conversion between the two frames involves precession, nutation, Earth rotation and polar motion. Among these factors, unpredictability and uncertainty of Earth rotation, called UTI-UTC, is the largest error source. In this paper, the effect of UTI-UTC on the accuracy of the LEO propagation is introduced, tested and analzed. Considering the maximum unpredictability of UTI-UTC, 0.9 seconds, the meaningful order of non-spherical Earth harmonic functions is derived.

• International Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.5-9
• /
• 2016

This paper briefly introduces efforts into space debris modeling towards a better understanding of space debris environment. Space debris modeling mainly consists of debris generation and orbit propagation. Debris generation can characterize and predict physical properties of fragments originating from explosions or collisions. Orbit propagation can characterize, track, and predict the behavior of individual or groups of space objects. Therefore, space debris modeling can build evolutionary models as essential tools to predict the stability of the future space debris populations. Space debris modeling is also useful and effective to improve the efficiency of measurements to be aware of the present environment.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.41-50
• /
• 2014

The Earth is not perfectly spherical and its rotational axis is not fixed in space, and these geophysical and kinematic irregularities work as dominant perturbations in satellite orbit propagation. The International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) provides the Conventions as guidelines for using the Earth's model and the reference time and coordinate systems defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). These guidelines are directly applied to model orbital dynamics of Earth satellites. In the present work, the effects of the latest conventions released in 2010 on orbit propagation are investigated by comparison with cases of applying the previous guidelines, IERS Conventions (2003). All seven major updates are tested, i.e., for the models of the precession/nutation, the geopotential, the ocean tides, the ocean pole tides, the free core nutation, the polar motion, and the solar system ephemeris. The resultant position differences for one week of orbit propagation range from tens of meters for the geopotential model change from EGM96 to EGM2008 to a few mm for the precession/nutation model change from IAU2000 to IAU2006. The along-track differences vary secularly while the cross-track components show periodic variation. However, the radial-track position differences are very small compared with the other components in all cases. These phenomena reflect the variation of the ascending node and the argument of latitude. The reason is that the changed models tested in the current study can be regarded as small fluctuations of the geopotential model from the point of view of orbital dynamics. The ascending node and the argument of latitude are more sensitive to the geopotential than the other elements. This study contributes to understanding of the relation between the Earth's geophysical properties and orbital motion of satellites as well as satellite-based observations.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.127-138
• /
• 2017

The current study designs the mission orbit of the lunar CubeSat spacecraft to measure the lunar local magnetic anomaly. To perform this mission, the CubeSat will impact the lunar surface over the Reiner Gamma swirl on the Moon. Orbit analyses are conducted comprising ${\Delta}V$ and error propagation analysis for the CubeSat mission orbit. First, three possible orbit scenarios are presented in terms of the CubeSat's impacting trajectories. For each scenario, it is important to achieve mission objectives with a minimum ${\Delta}V$ since the CubeSat is limited in size and cost. Therefore, the ${\Delta}V$ needed for the CubeSat to maneuver from the initial orbit toward the impacting trajectory is analyzed for each orbit scenario. In addition, error propagation analysis is performed for each scenario to evaluate how initial errors, such as position error, velocity error, and maneuver error, that occur when the CubeSat is separated from the lunar orbiter, eventually affect the final impact position. As a result, the current study adopts a CubeSat release from the circular orbit at 100 km altitude and an impact slope of $15^{\circ}$, among the possible impacting scenarios. For this scenario, the required ${\Delta}V$ is calculated as the result of the ${\Delta}V$ analysis. It can be used to practically make an estimate of this specific mission's fuel budget. In addition, the current study suggests error constraints for ${\Delta}V$ for the mission.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.122-128
• /
• 2007

In this paper, a method of station keeping strategy using relative orbital motion and numerical optimization technique is presented for geostationary satellite. Relative position vector with respect to an ideal geostationary orbit is generated using high precision orbit propagation, and compressed in terms of polynomial and trigonometric function. Then, this relative orbit model is combined with optimization scheme to propose a very efficient and flexible method of station keeping planning. Proper selection of objective and constraint functions for optimization can yield a variety of station keeping methods improved over the classical ones. Nonlinear simulation results have been shown to support such concept.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.221-232
• /
• 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 Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.193-201
• /
• 2011

A strategy for geostationary orbit (or geostationary earth orbit [GEO]) surveillance based on optical angular observations is presented in this study. For the dynamic model, precise analytical orbit model developed by Lee et al. (1997) is used to improve computation performance and the unscented Kalman filer (UKF) is applied as a real-time filtering method. The UKF is known to perform well under highly nonlinear conditions such as surveillance in this study. The strategy that combines the analytical orbit propagation model and the UKF is tested for various conditions like different level of initial error and different level of measurement noise. The dependencies on observation interval and number of ground station are also tested. The test results shows that the GEO orbit determination based on the UKF and the analytical orbit model can be applied to GEO orbit tracking and surveillance effectively.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.136-141
• /
• 1997

To calculate the position and velocity of the artificial satellite precisely, one has to build a mathematical model concerning the perturbations by understanding and analysing the space environment correctly and then quantifying. Due to these space environment model, the total acceleration of the artificial satellite can be expressed as the 2nd order differential equation and we build an orbit propagation algorithm by integrating twice this equation by using the Cowell's method which gives the position and velocity of the artificial satellite at any given time. Perturbations important for the orbits of geostationary spacecraft are the Earth's gravitational potential, the gravitational influences of the sun and moon, and the solar radiation pressure. For precise orbit propagation in Cowell' method, 40 x 40 spherical harmonic coefficients can be applied and the JPL DE403 ephemeris files were used to generate the range from earth to sun and moon and 8th order Runge-Kutta single step method with variable step-size control is used to integrate the the orbit propagation equations.