• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.295-308
• /
• 2018

In this study, orbit determination (OD) simulation for the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) was accomplished for investigation of the observational arc-length effect using a sequential estimation algorithm. A lunar polar orbit located at 100 km altitude and $90^{\circ}$ inclination was mainly considered for the KPLO mission operation phase. For measurement simulation and OD for KPLO, the Analytical Graphics Inc. Systems Tool Kit 11 and Orbit Determination Tool Kit 6 software were utilized. Three deep-space ground stations, including two deep space network (DSN) antennas and the Korea Deep Space Antenna, were configured for the OD simulation. To investigate the arc-length effect on OD, 60-hr, 48-hr, 24-hr, and 12-hr tracking data were prepared. Position uncertainty by error covariance and orbit overlap precision were used for OD performance evaluation. Additionally, orbit prediction (OP) accuracy was also assessed by the position difference between the estimated and true orbits. Finally, we concluded that the 48-hr-based OD strategy is suitable for effective flight dynamics operation of KPLO. This work suggests a useful guideline for the OD strategy of KPLO mission planning and operation during the nominal lunar orbits phase.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.189-200
• /
• 2015

In this study, we present the results of orbit determination (OD) using satellite laser ranging (SLR) data for the Science and Technology Satellite (STSAT)-2C by a short-arc analysis. For SLR data processing, the NASA/GSFC GEODYN II software with one year (2013/04 - 2014/04) of normal point observations is used. As there is only an extremely small quantity of SLR observations of STSAT-2C and they are sparsely distribution, the selection of the arc length and the estimation intervals for the atmospheric drag coefficients and the empirical acceleration parameters was made on an arc-to-arc basis. For orbit quality assessment, the post-fit residuals of each short-arc and orbit overlaps of arcs are investigated. The OD results show that the weighted root mean square post-fit residuals of short-arcs are less than 1 cm, and the average 1-day orbit overlaps are superior to 50/600/900 m for the radial/cross-track/along-track components. These results demonstrate that OD for STSAT-2C was successfully achieved with cm-level range precision. However its orbit quality did not reach the same level due to the availability of few and sparse measurement conditions. From a mission analysis viewpoint, obtaining the results of OD for STSAT-2C is significant for generating enhanced orbit predictions for more frequent tracking.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.37-44
• /
• 2016

This paper presents an algorithm for Real-Time Orbit Determination (RTOD) of navigation satellites for the Korean Regional Navigation Satellite System (KRNSS), when the navigation satellites generate ephemeris by themselves in abnormal situations. The KRNSS is an independent Regional Navigation Satellite System (RNSS) that is currently within the basic/preliminary research phase, which is intended to provide a satellite navigation service for South Korea and neighboring countries. Its candidate constellation comprises three geostationary and four elliptical inclined geosynchronous orbit satellites. Relative distance ranging between the KRNSS satellites based on Inter-Satellite Ranging (ISR) is adopted as the observation model. The extended Kalman filter is used for real-time estimation, which includes fine-tuning the covariance, measurement noise, and process noise matrices. Simulation results show that ISR precision of 0.3-0.7 m, ranging capability of 65,000 km, and observation intervals of less than 20 min are required to accomplish RTOD accuracy to within 1 m. Furthermore, close correlation is confirmed between the dilution of precision and RTOD accuracy.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.900-909
• /
• 2012

Low Earth orbit satellites with satellite navigation receiver use onboard navigation filters for filtering measurement signals and for orbit prediction under signal loss. Precision satellite dynamic models, core of the navigation filter, are studied and a computation program is developed. Gravity acceleration, precision coordinate transform, third-body gravity, atmospheric drag, and solar radiation pressure models are combined into an orbit prediction algorithm, and a proven precision orbit determination software is used to validate the program. Orbit prediction accuracy is analyzed with simulated and flight orbit data. The program meets an accuracy level for onboard real-time navigation filter.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.79-87
• /
• 2015

In this paper, a real time on-board orbit determination method using the extended kalman filter is suggested and its performance is analyzed in the environment of the orbit. Considering the limited on-board resources, the $J_2$ orbit propagate model and the GPS navigation solution are used for on-board orbit determination. The analysis result of the on-board orbit determination method implemented in DubaiSat-2 showed that position and velocity error are improved from 70.26 m to 26.25 m and from 3.6 m/s to 0.044 m/s, respectively when abnormal excursion errors is removed in the GPS navigation solution.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.55-62
• /
• 2011

The precise orbit determination (POD) of low earth orbiter (LEO) has complied with its required positioning accuracy by the double-differencing of observations between International GNSS Service (IGS) and LEO to eliminate the common clock error of the global positioning system (GPS) satellites and receiver. Using this method, we also have achieved the 1 m positioning accuracy of Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT)-2. However double-differencing POD has huge load of processing the global network of lots of ground stations because LEO turns around the Earth with rapid velocity. And both the centimeter accuracy and the near real time (NRT) processing have been needed in the LEO POD applications--atmospheric sounding or urgent image processing--as well as the surveying. An alternative to differential GPS for high accuracy NRT POD is precise point positioning (PPP) to use measurements from one satellite receiver only, to replace the broadcast navigation message with precise post processed values from IGS, and to have phase measurements of dual frequency GPS receiver. PPP can obtain positioning accuracy comparable to that of differential positioning. KOMPSAT-5 has a precise dual frequency GPS flight receiver (integrated GPS and occultation receiver, IGOR) to satisfy the accuracy requirements of 20 cm positioning accuracy for highly precise synthetic aperture radar image processing and to collect GPS radio occultation measurements for atmospheric sounding. In this paper we obtained about 3-5 cm positioning accuracies using the real GPS data of the Gravity Recover and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites loaded the Blackjack receiver, a predecessor of IGOR. And it is important to reduce the latency of orbit determination processing in the NRT POD. This latency is determined as the volume of GPS measurements. Thus changing the sampling intervals, we show their latency to able to reduce without the precision degradation as the assessment of their precision.

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

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.55-62
• /
• 2017

The SRP (Solar Radiation Pressure) model has always been an issue in the dynamic GPS (Global Positioning System) orbit determination. The widely used CODE (Center for Orbit Determination in Europe) model and its variants have nine parameters to estimate the solar radiation pressure from the Sun and to absorb the remaining forces. However, these parameters show a very high correlation with each other and, therefore, only several of them are estimated at most of the IGS (International GNSS Service) analysis centers. In this study, we attempted to numerically verify the correlation between the parameters. For this purpose, a bi-directional, multi-step numerical integrator was developed. The correlation between the SRP parameters was analyzed in terms of post-fit residuals of the orbit. The integrated orbit was fitted to the IGS final orbit as external observations. On top of the parametric analysis of the SRP parameters, we also verified the capabilities of orbit prediction at later time epochs. As a secondary criterion for orbit quality, the positional discontinuity of the daily arcs was also analyzed. The resulting post-fit RMSE (Root-Mean-Squared Error) shows a level of 4.8 mm on average and there is no significant difference between block types. Since the once-per-revolution parameters in the Y-axis are highly correlated with those in the B-axis, the periodic terms in the D- and Y-axis are constrained to zero in order to resolve the correlations. The 6-hr predicted orbit based on the previous day yields about 3 cm or less compared to the IGS final orbit for a week, and reaches up to 6 cm for 24 hours (except for one day). The mean positional discontinuity at the boundary of two 1-day arcs is on the level of 1.4 cm for all non-eclipsing satellites. The developed orbit integrator shows a high performance in statistics of RMSE and positional discontinuity, as well as the separations of the dynamic parameters. In further research, additional verification of the reference frame for the estimated orbit using SLR is necessary to confirm the consistency of the orbit frames.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.89-98
• /
• 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
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.293-306
• /
• 2019

In this study, the observational arc-length effect on orbit determination (OD) for the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) in the Earth-Moon Transfer phase was investigated. For the OD, we employed a sequential estimation using the extended Kalman filter and a fixed-point smoother. The mission periods, comprised between the perigee maneuvers (PM) and the lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuver in a 3.5 phasing loop of the KPLO, was the primary target. The total period was divided into three phases: launch-PM1, PM1-PM3, and PM3-LOI. The Doppler and range data obtained from three tracking stations [included in the deep space network (DSN) and Korea Deep Space Antenna (KDSA)] were utilized for the OD. Six arc-length cases (24 hrs, 48 hrs, 60 hrs, 3 days, 4 days, and 5 days) were considered for the arc-length effect investigation. In order to evaluate the OD accuracy, we analyzed the position uncertainties, the precision of orbit overlaps, and the position differences between true and estimated trajectories. The maximum performance of 3-day OD approach was observed in the case of stable flight dynamics operations and robust navigation capability. This study provides a guideline for the flight dynamics operations of the KPLO in the trans-lunar phase.