10.2514/6.2020-1097">
 

Spacecraft position estimation using terrestrial illumination matching

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-6-2020

Abstract

An algorithm to conduct spacecraft position and pose estimation via terrestrial illumination matching (TIM) is presented consisting of a novel method that uses terrestrial lights as a surrogate for star fields. Although star sensors represent a highly accurate means of position and attitude determination with considerable spaceflight heritage, TIM provides a potentially viable alternative in the event of star sensor malfunction or performance degradation. The research defines a catalog of terrestrial light “constellations,” which are then implemented within the TIM algorithm for position acquisition of a generic spacecraft bus. With the algorithm relying on terrestrial lights rather than the establish standard of star fields, a series of sensitivity studies are showcased to determine performance during specified operating constraints, to include varying orbital altitude and cloud cover conditions. Also, a comparison of relative accuracy will be presented for TIM with a generic star sensor.

Comments

This conference paper is published by AIAA and is available by subscription or purchase at the DOI link below.

Conference Session: Navigation, Estimation, Sensing, and Tracking I

Alternative title: Spacecraft Attitude Determination using Terrestrial Illumination Matching (used on the AIAA Aerospace Research Central record page for the paper).

AIAA paper 2020-1097

Source Publication

AIAA Scitech 2020 Forum

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