Citation

Abstract

An interactive, menu-driven computer program has been written to streamline the orbit determination process during the critical launch support phase of a mission. Residing on a virtual memory minicomputer, this program retains the quantities in-core needed to obtain a least squares estimate of the spacecraft trajectory with interactive displays to assist in rapid radio metric data evaluation. Menu-driven displays allow realtime filter and data strategy development. Graphical and tabular displays can be sent to a laser printer for analysis without exiting the program. Products generated by this program feed back to the main orbit determination program in order to further refine the estimate of the trajectory. The final estimate provides a spacecraft ephemeris which is transmitted to the mission control center and used for antenna pointing and frequency predict generation by the Deep Space Network. The development and implementation process of this program differed from that used for most other navigation software by allowing the users to check important operating features during development and have changes made as needed.

Details

Volume
42-94
Published
August 15, 1988
Pages
28–41
File Size
744.9 KB