A role for improved angular observations in geosynchronous orbit determination.

摘要

The goal of this thesis is to show that improved angular observations can aid in the determination of satellite position and velocity in the geosynchronous orbit regime. Raven is a new sensor being developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory which should allow for angular observations of satellites to be made with a standard deviation of 1 arcsecond (which maps into approximately 170 meters at geosynchronous altitude); this is an order of magnitude improvement over traditional angular observation techniques and represents state of the art accuracy of angular observations for geosynchronous orbit determination work. Simulation studies are undertaken to show that these angular observations can be used in the orbit determination process both as the only cracking data source and as a supplement to other tracking data sources such as radar and radio transponder ranges. Results from the radio transponder range analysis are extended to cover Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) observation types as well. The studies target both space surveillance and owner/operator mission support aspects of orbit determination although the emphasis will be on mission support satellite operations. Parameters varied in the simulation studies include the number of observing stations, the density of the angular observations, and the number of nights of optical tracking. The data simulations are calibrated based on real data results from a geosynchronous satellite to ensure the integrity of the simulations and the accuracy of the results. The studies show that including the improved angular observations with traditional high accuracy range observations produces a significant improvement in orbit determination accuracy over the range observations alone. The studies also show single site geosynchronous orbit determination is an attractive alternative when combining improved angular and high accuracy range observations.