GPS-BASED SMALL SATELLITE POSITION AND ATTITUDE DETERMINATION SIMULATOR

摘要

This paper represents a PC simulator for a generic satellite that uses the Global Positioning System receivers in its attitude and position determination systems. The simulator is based on two modules for both position and attitude determination. In the position determination module, a model for all GPS satellites and the target satellite orbits has been prepared. In the attitude determination module, a new modification to the famous algebraic algorithm has been added to increase the efficiency. GPS differential carrier phase measurements have been simulated and used to solve the attitude determination problem for the target satellite. Environmental effects such as gravity gradient, earth's magnetic field, solar pressure, and aerodynamic drag have been studied and included in the simulator. Finally, a test case was studied to evaluate the simulator performance.