Low-Earth Orbit Determination from Gravity Gradient Measurements

Abstract

An innovative orbit determination method which makes use of gravity gradients for Low-Earth-Orbiting satellites is proposed. The measurement principle of gravity gradiometry is briefly reviewed and the sources of measurement error are analyzed. An adaptive hybrid least squares batch filter based on linearization of the orbital equation and unscented transformation of the measurement equation is developed to estimate the orbital states and the measurement biases. The algorithm is tested with the actual flight data from the European Space Agency Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer. The orbit determination results are compared with the GPS-derived orbits. The radial and cross-track position errors are on the order of tens of meters, whereas the along-track position error is over one order of magnitude larger. The gravity gradient based orbit determination method is promising for potential use in GPS-denied spacecraft navigation.

34 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Perturbed stellar motions around the rotating black hole in Sgr A* for a generic orientation of its spin axis
• Novel considerations about the error budget of the LAGEOS-based tests of frame-dragging with GRACE geopotential models
• Fundamental Physics and General Relativity with the LARES and LAGEOS satellites
• A critical analysis of a recent test of the Lense-Thirring effect with the LAGEOS satellites
• Towards exact relativistic theory of Earth's geoid undulation
• Gravity Gradient Tensor Eigendecomposition for Spacecraft Positioning

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Analysis of Orbital Configurations for Millimetron Space Observatory
• Searching for new physics in the solar system with tetrahedral spacecraft formations
• Orbit Estimation Using a Horizon Detector in the Presence of Uncertain Celestial Body Rotation and Geometry
• Autonomous Orbit Determination Using Epoch-Differenced Gravity Gradients and Starlight Refraction