Citation
Abstract
Technology currently is available to support real-time onboard knowledge of the position of a low Earth orbiter at the 5- to 15-m level using the civilian broadcast Global Positioning System (GPS) signal with sophisticated models and filtering techniques onboard the spacecraft. Without these techniques, the standard positioning service yields 50 to 100 m with the current level of selective availability (SA). Proposed augmentations and/or enhancements to the GPS system will make rms accuracies of from 10 centimeters to a few decimeters available to the real-time onboard user. Presently, near-real-time processing of GPS tracking data can routinely provide low-Earth-orbit determination accuracy at the level of 5 cm. Such processing systems can, in fact, be fully automated; recent results from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ongoing daily processing of low Earth GPS tracking data has been undertaken for several years, are presented in this article, showing orbit determination accuracies at the sub-10-cm level. At the present time, such solutions can be produced with about a 10-h delay after real time, but recent improvements in JPL’s processing system soon will enable turnaround at the 1-h level or better for such precise orbit determination. We anticipate that orbit determination at the 1-cm-accuracy level will be demonstrated, with some refinements to the current system, in the not too distant future. Continuing enhancements in the automation of data retrieval and precise orbit processing will result in continuing decreases in latency for ground-based generation of precise orbit products for Earth orbiters. Such ephemerides can be propagated slightly ahead to provide real-time knowledge. However, there are advantages to an onboard, real-time orbit-determination capability. These include unique mission requirements (military, strategic, and scientific), as well as the potential to dramatically lower navigation operations costs through the enabling of a fully autonomous spacecraft. JPL has been actively involved in the development of technology to enable a fully autonomous spacecraft in low Earth orbit. This article includes recent results of analysis of actual and simulated GPS data collected in space that demonstrate that a 10-cm (or better) real-time onboard orbit-determination capability presently is technologically feasible. In addition to space-based data, present-day 1Tracking Systems and Applications Section.
Keywords
Details
- Volume
- 42-137
- Published
- May 15, 1999
- Pages
- 1–11
- File Size
- 453.2 KB