Autonomous orbit determination and navigation for formations of CubeSats beyond LEO

Massimiliano Vasile; Francesco Torre; Romain Serra; Stuart Grey

Autonomous orbit determination and navigation for formations of CubeSats beyond LEO

Massimiliano Vasile, Francesco Torre, Romain Serra, Stuart Grey

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Abstract

This paper investigates the use of the Time Of Arrival (TOA) and Doppler shift to allow a small formation of CubeSats to navigate beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). The idea is to use a one way communication, from one or more ground station to two or more CubeSats, to reconstruct an estimation of the position and velocity of the formation with respect to Earth. The paper considers the use of the difference in TOA and Doppler measurements to mitigate the error introduced by the onboard clock. These measurements are combined with inter-satellite distance and velocity measurements based on a two-way communication between pairs of spacecraft. The paper will provide an estimation of the error in position and velocity that can be obtained by a combination of these measurements. The reference case for these analyses will be a mission to the Moon.

Original language	English
Number of pages	20
Publication status	Published - 19 Jun 2017
Event	9th International Workshop on Satellite Constellations and Formation Flying - University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States Duration: 19 Jun 2017 → 21 Jun 2017 Conference number: 9 http://ccar.colorado.edu/iwscff2017/

Conference

Conference	9th International Workshop on Satellite Constellations and Formation Flying
Abbreviated title	IWSCFF
Country/Territory	United States
City	Boulder
Period	19/06/17 → 21/06/17
Internet address	http://ccar.colorado.edu/iwscff2017/

Keywords

autonomous navigation
formation flying
CubeSats
time of arrival (TOA)
Doppler shift
low Earth orbit
LEO
Moon
space missions
astronautics

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Vasile-etal-IWSCFF-2017-Autonomous-orbit-determination-and-navigation-for-formations-of-CubeSats-beyond-LEOAccepted author manuscript, 760 KB

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title = "Autonomous orbit determination and navigation for formations of CubeSats beyond LEO",

abstract = "This paper investigates the use of the Time Of Arrival (TOA) and Doppler shift to allow a small formation of CubeSats to navigate beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). The idea is to use a one way communication, from one or more ground station to two or more CubeSats, to reconstruct an estimation of the position and velocity of the formation with respect to Earth. The paper considers the use of the difference in TOA and Doppler measurements to mitigate the error introduced by the onboard clock. These measurements are combined with inter-satellite distance and velocity measurements based on a two-way communication between pairs of spacecraft. The paper will provide an estimation of the error in position and velocity that can be obtained by a combination of these measurements. The reference case for these analyses will be a mission to the Moon.",

keywords = "autonomous navigation, formation flying, CubeSats, time of arrival (TOA), Doppler shift, low Earth orbit, LEO, Moon, space missions, astronautics",

author = "Massimiliano Vasile and Francesco Torre and Romain Serra and Stuart Grey",

year = "2017",

month = jun,

day = "19",

language = "English",

note = "9th International Workshop on Satellite Constellations and Formation Flying, IWSCFF ; Conference date: 19-06-2017 Through 21-06-2017",

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}

TY - CONF

T1 - Autonomous orbit determination and navigation for formations of CubeSats beyond LEO

AU - Vasile, Massimiliano

AU - Torre, Francesco

AU - Serra, Romain

AU - Grey, Stuart

N1 - Conference code: 9

PY - 2017/6/19

Y1 - 2017/6/19

N2 - This paper investigates the use of the Time Of Arrival (TOA) and Doppler shift to allow a small formation of CubeSats to navigate beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). The idea is to use a one way communication, from one or more ground station to two or more CubeSats, to reconstruct an estimation of the position and velocity of the formation with respect to Earth. The paper considers the use of the difference in TOA and Doppler measurements to mitigate the error introduced by the onboard clock. These measurements are combined with inter-satellite distance and velocity measurements based on a two-way communication between pairs of spacecraft. The paper will provide an estimation of the error in position and velocity that can be obtained by a combination of these measurements. The reference case for these analyses will be a mission to the Moon.

AB - This paper investigates the use of the Time Of Arrival (TOA) and Doppler shift to allow a small formation of CubeSats to navigate beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). The idea is to use a one way communication, from one or more ground station to two or more CubeSats, to reconstruct an estimation of the position and velocity of the formation with respect to Earth. The paper considers the use of the difference in TOA and Doppler measurements to mitigate the error introduced by the onboard clock. These measurements are combined with inter-satellite distance and velocity measurements based on a two-way communication between pairs of spacecraft. The paper will provide an estimation of the error in position and velocity that can be obtained by a combination of these measurements. The reference case for these analyses will be a mission to the Moon.

KW - autonomous navigation

KW - formation flying

KW - CubeSats

KW - time of arrival (TOA)

KW - Doppler shift

KW - low Earth orbit

KW - LEO

KW - Moon

KW - space missions

KW - astronautics

M3 - Paper

T2 - 9th International Workshop on Satellite Constellations and Formation Flying

Y2 - 19 June 2017 through 21 June 2017

ER -

Autonomous orbit determination and navigation for formations of CubeSats beyond LEO

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

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