This study presents the generation and accuracy assessment of predicted orbital ephemeris based on satellite laser ranging (SLR) for geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites. Two GEO satellites are considered: GEO-Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT)-2B (GK-2B) for simulational validation and Compass-G1 for real-world quality assessment. SLR-based orbit determination (OD) is proactively performed to generate orbital ephemeris. The length and the gap of the predicted orbital ephemeris were set by considering the consolidated prediction format (CPF). The resultant predicted ephemeris of GK-2B is directly compared with a pre-specified true orbit to show 17.461 m and 23.978 m, in 3D root-mean-square (RMS) position error and maximum position error for one day, respectively. The predicted ephemeris of Compass-G1 is overlapped with the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) final orbit from the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) analysis center (AC) to yield 36.760 m in 3D RMS position differences. It is also compared with the CPF orbit from the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) to present 109.888 m in 3D RMS position differences. These results imply that SLR-based orbital ephemeris can be an alternative candidate for improving the accuracy of commonly used radar-based orbital ephemeris for GEO satellites.
Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)-Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT)-2B (GK-2B) is a Korean geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellite that is scheduled to be launched in 2020 for meteorological and ocean monitoring. While the primary orbit determination (OD) for GK-2B is by ground-based radar observations and the expected orbit precision is less than 1 km, a satellite laser ranging (SLR) technique has been selected as a subsidiary OD method to verify/complement/enhance primary OD results. In general, the available time and equipment for observing GEO satellites with SLR are limited. Furthermore, because the optical sensors mounted on GK-2B may be defected by laser, only a domestic single SLR station would obtain the tracking data. This research presents the mitigation of these drawbacks to improve orbit precision. Observation data generation and the associated OD of GK-2B are performed by considering numerical SLR data analysis on Compass-G1, a Chinese GEO navigation satellite, and Chinese SLR station at Changchun. With the OD performed for two scenarios with the varying number of observations, the 3D position error is 24.01 m when 13 observations per day are obtained, while the error becomes 43.46 m when 9 observations per day are obtained. To verify these results, the OD of Compass-G1 using actual SLR data from Changchun station is performed to yield 31.89 m for 3D error, which is favorable compared with the external precise ephemeris by GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) analysis center. Therefore, the OD based on single SLR station is applicable to estimating the orbit within less than 100 m.
본 연구에서는 초소형 위성을 이용한 위성 편대 및 군집 운용 시 실시간으로 위성 간의 상대 위치 정보를 제공할 수 있는 통합 항법용 모듈형 온보드 컴퓨터(On-board Computer, OBC)를 개발하였다. 모듈은 구조적으로는 큐브위성의 기준 규격에 맞게 설계하되 사용자가 원하는 무선 통신 모듈 및 항법용 Global Positioning System(GPS) 장비를 적용할 수 있도록 확장성을 고려하였다. 개발된 OBC는 제품 개발 및 제작 이후 야외 테스트를 통해 저전력 Micro Controller Unit(MCU)로 군집 운용을 수행하는 초소형 위성들의 통합 항법 및 실시간 데이터 동기화 요구 처리속도를 만족함을 확인하였다. 또한, 열진공, 방사능 시험을 거쳐 우주급 환경에서 정상 작동함을 확인하였으며, 진동시험의 경우 underfill 공정을 추가하면 정상적으로 요구조건을 만족할 수 있음을 확인하였다. 이를 통해 향후 수요가 늘어날 군집 운용을 위한 위성군 개발의 핵심 부품인 OBC의 대량 생산 체계를 구축하였다.
This study presents a precise relative navigation algorithm using both laser and Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements in real time. The measurement model of the navigation algorithm between two spacecraft is comprised of relative distances measured by laser instruments and single differences of GPS pseudo-range measurements in spherical coordinates. Based on the measurement model, the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is applied to smooth the pseudo-range measurements and to obtain the relative navigation solution. While the navigation algorithm using only laser measurements might become inaccurate because of the limited accuracy of spacecraft attitude estimation when the distance between spacecraft is rather large, the proposed approach is able to provide an accurate solution even in such cases by employing the smoothed GPS pseudo-range measurements. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the errors of the proposed algorithm are reduced by more than about 12% compared to those of an algorithm using only laser measurements, as the accuracy of angular measurements is greater than $0.001^{\circ}$ at relative distances greater than 30 km.
This study presents the application of satellite laser ranging (SLR) to orbit determination (OD) of high-Earth-orbit (HEO) satellites. Two HEO satellites are considered: the Quasi-Zenith Satellite-1 (QZS-1), a Japanese elliptical-inclinedgeosynchronous-orbit (EIGSO) satellite, and the Compass-G1, a Chinese geostationary-orbit (GEO) satellite. One week of normal point (NP) data were collected for each satellite to perform the OD based on the batch least-square process. Five SLR tracking stations successfully obtained 374 NPs for QZS-1 in eight days, whereas only two ground tracking stations could track Compass-G1, yielding 68 NPs in ten days. Two types of station bias estimation and a station data weighting strategy were utilized for the OD of QZS-1. The post-fit root-mean-square (RMS) residuals of the two week-long arcs were 11.98 cm and 10.77 cm when estimating the biases once in an arc (MBIAS). These residuals were decreased significantly to 2.40 cm and 3.60 cm by estimating the biases every pass (PBIAS). Then, the resultant OD precision was evaluated by the orbit overlap method, yielding three-dimensional errors of 55.013 m with MBIAS and 1.962 m with PBIAS for the overlap period of six days. For the OD of Compass-G1, no station weighting strategy was applied, and only MBIAS was utilized due to the lack of NPs. The post-fit RMS residuals of OD were 8.81 cm and 12.00 cm with 49 NPs and 47 NPs, respectively, and the corresponding threedimensional orbit overlap error for four days was 160.564 m. These results indicate that the amount of SLR tracking data is critical for obtaining precise OD of HEO satellites using SLR because additional parameters, such as station bias, are available for estimation with sufficient tracking data. Furthermore, the stand-alone SLR-based orbit solution is consistently attainable for HEO satellites if a target satellite is continuously trackable for a specific period.
In this study, we present results of precise orbital geodetic parameter estimation using satellite laser ranging (SLR) observations for the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) associate analysis center (AAC). Using normal point observations of LAGEOS-1, LAGEOS-2, ETALON-1, and ETALON-2 in SLR consolidated laser ranging data format, the NASA/GSFC GEODYN II and SOLVE software programs were utilized for precise orbit determination (POD) and finding solutions of a terrestrial reference frame (TRF) and Earth orientation parameters (EOPs). For POD, a weekly-based orbit determination strategy was employed to process SLR observations taken from 20 weeks in 2013. For solutions of TRF and EOPs, loosely constrained scheme was used to integrate POD results of four geodetic SLR satellites. The coordinates of 11 ILRS core sites were determined and daily polar motion and polar motion rates were estimated. The root mean square (RMS) value of post-fit residuals was used for orbit quality assessment, and both the stability of TRF and the precision of EOPs by external comparison were analyzed for verification of our solutions. Results of post-fit residuals show that the RMS of the orbits of LAGEOS-1 and LAGEOS-2 are 1.20 and 1.12 cm, and those of ETALON-1 and ETALON-2 are 1.02 and 1.11 cm, respectively. The stability analysis of TRF shows that the mean value of 3D stability of the coordinates of 11 ILRS core sites is 7.0 mm. An external comparison, with respect to International Earth rotation and Reference systems Service (IERS) 08 C04 results, shows that standard deviations of polar motion $X_P$ and $Y_P$ are 0.754 milliarcseconds (mas) and 0.576 mas, respectively. Our results of precise orbital and geodetic parameter estimation are reasonable and help advance research at ILRS AAC.
This study proposes real-time orbit/clock determination of Korean Navigation Satellite System (KNSS), which employs the kinematic precise point positioning (PPP) solutions of multiple Global Navigation Satellite System (multi-GNSS) to compensate for receiver clock offset. Global visibility of KNSS satellites in terms of geometric coverage is first analyzed for the purpose of selecting optimal locations of KNSS monitoring stations among International GNSS Service (IGS) and Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) network. While the receiver clock offset is obtained from multi-GNSS PPP clock solutions of real observation data, KNSS measurements are simulated from the dynamically propagated KNSS reference orbit and the receiver clock offset. The offset and drift of satellite clock are also generated based on two-state clock model considering atomic clock noise. Real-time orbit determination results are compared with an artificially generated true or bit, wihch show 0.4m and 0.5m of 3-dimensional root-mean-square (RMS) position errors for geostationary (GEO) and ellitically-inclined-geosynchronous-orbit (EIGSO) satellites, respectively. The overall results show that the real-time precise orbit determination of KNSS should be achievable in meter level by installing KNSS-compatible multi-GNSS receivers on the IGS and/or MGEX network. The overall process can be also used to verify integrity of KNSS monitoring stations.
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