FLIGHT PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A HIGH ACCURACY INTER-SATELLITE RANGING INSTRUMENT

摘要

The NASA/DLR GRACE mission is a dedicated gravity mapping mission using two low earth satellites. The satellites, launched in 2002, are currently operational and producing new Earth gravity models. The flight data from the K-band inter-satellite ranging system (KBR), which is the key instrument of the GRACE, has been analyzed in order to validate the instrument modeling of pre-launch simulation model. After brief review of the KBR concept, the KBR simulation results are presented. Comparison between the simulated KBR measurements and flight measurements are performed in spectral domain. The discrepancy between the simulated model and flight model is discussed for the simulation model update.