Space Surveillance with Star Trackers Part Ⅱ: Orbit Estimation

摘要

The problem of estimating the orbit of a space object using observed star tracker measurements, is addressed. Star trackers can provide azimuth and elevation measurements of a space object which are used to estimate the orbit of the object, assuming that the orbital and attitude motion models are known. The system observability is investigated. Both, batched least square and Kalman filter techniques, are implemented. Results show that the orbit parameters of the observed object can be estimated if the measurements time span is in the order of 20% of the orbital period.