Date of Award

12-1991

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

First Advisor

William E. Wiesel, PhD

Abstract

Previous work in the area of estimation of relative positions within a satellite cluster showed favorable results. However, the work was done using point mass orbits in the truth model. This thesis investigates the estimation of relative satellite positions operating in near circular orbit including the J2 term in Earth's geopotential. The iterated, extended Kalman filter is used as the on-board estimator in order to gain better performance in the face of the non-linearities. The dynamics in the estimator are based on the Clohessy- Wiltshire equations for relative orbital motion. Inputs to the host estimator are range measurements from each satellite in the cluster. The relative position to the host satellite is investigated. A comparison of the true error and the rms covariance was performed.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GA-ENY-91D-5

DTIC Accession Number

ADA243897

Comments

The author's Vita page is omitted.

Download

Included in

Astrodynamics Commons

Share

COinS