Algorithms for Estimating a Re-Entry Body's Position, Velocity and Ballistic Coefficient in Real Time or for Post Flight Analysis

摘要

A general theory of recursive estimation is applied to the particular problem of estimating the time history of a re-entry vehicle's position, velocity and ballistic coefficient from radar measurements of range, elevation, azimuth and range rate. The resulting algorithms have the following properties: (1) Conceptually simple and easy to implement on either general purpose or special purpose computers; (2) Noniterative; (3) Storage requirements independent of amount of data; (4) Extremely fast; capable of real time operation; and (5) A finite memory span; that is, can act like a 'sliding arc' algorithm. Explicit formulae are provided along with general discussions on the basic concept. (Author)