Date of Award

12-1990

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Astronautical Engineering

Department

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

First Advisor

William Wiesel, PhD

Abstract

The relative position determination of a cluster of satellites operating in a low earth orbit is investigated. A U-D Covariance Factorization Kalman Filter is used for the on-board estimator with dynamics based on the Clohessy-Wiltshire equations. Measurements consist of range data between a single host satellite and the remaining cluster. Therefore only relative position and velocity states with respect to the host satellite can be determined. A 15 sample Monte Carlo simulation was conducted with clusters of 2, 5, and 10 satellites, respectively. Performance results consists of average error, average true error and filter covariance as a function of time.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GA-ENY-90D-9

DTIC Accession Number

ADA230683

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