This book focuses on the navigation and tracking of artificial space objects, with emphasis on modelling the dynamics in a wide range of space missions, including: earth-orbiting satellite missions, launch and re-entry missions as well as interplanetary missions. The book guides you in designing suitable estimation algorithms for each type of mission. It also helps you in addressing non-linearity in designing navigation algorithms for space missions, and walks you through the process for choosing estimators for navigation and tracking of space vehicles.
You’ll find specific details on earth-orbiting satellite tracking and navigation that helps you determine precise orbit, and will understand how to get navigation and tracking results using the Least Square Estimation and the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) for simulated observations. You also learn how to address tracking performance of spacecraft in interplanetary trajectories that are affected by a diverse set of problems, such low signal power, intermittent observations, observations at low rate and delays. Techniques for designing navigation and tracking algorithms to address these problems are delineated. The book also provides in-depth coverage of multi-object tracking, relevant data association and estimation algorithms in the Situational Space Awareness context.
MATLAB/ Simulink based software is provided for simulation and simulated data set. This is an excellent reference and practical tool for professionals in the field of Guidance, Navigation and Control, along with researchers and advanced students in the field of space vehicle navigation, tracking, guidance and control.
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Scope of the book
1.2.1 Objectives
1.2.2 Overview of the book
1.3 Preliminaries
1.3.1 Linear algebra
1.3.2 3-dimensional rotation matrices
1.3.3 Probability
1.3.4 Motion of an object in space
References
Chapter 2 Space Vehicle Dynamics
2.1 Overview
2.2 Reference Frames
2.2.1 Earth Centered Inertial (ECI) Frame
2.2.2 Earth Centered Earth Fixed (ECEF) Frame
2.2.3 Topocentric Frame
2.2.4 Solar Ecliptic Coordinate System
2.2.5 Reference frame conversion
2.3 Force Model
2.3.1 Perturbation forces
2.3.2 Thrust
2.4 State space model of space Vehicles
2.4.1 Earth orbiting satellites
2.4.2 Launch vehicle
2.4.3 Re-entry vehicle
2.4.4 Interplanetary spacecraft
References
Chapter 3 Observations
3.1 Overview
3.2 Ground-Based Observations
3.2.1 Active and passive radio Observations
3.2.2 Satellite Laser ranging
3.2.3 Very Long Baseline Interferometry
3.3 On-board Observations
3.3.1 Angular Measurements to celestial objects
3.3.2 Earth Based Target Reference Measurement
3.3.3 Range Measurement to Known Beacon
3.3.4 GNSS Observations
3.3.5 Dilution of Precision
3.3.6 Inertial Navigation System
3.4 Summary
References
Chapter 4 Estimation Algorithms
4.1 Overview
4.2 Space Vehicle Navigation as an Estimation Problem
4.3 Least Square Estimation and Batch processing
4.4 The Kalman Filter
4.4.1 The Kalman Filter for Discrete Linear Systems
4.4.2 Extended Kalman Filter
4.4.3 Unscented Kalman Filter
4.4.4 Computationally Efficient Unscented Kalman Filters
4.5 Nonlinearity and Choice of Estimator
4.5.1 Nonlinearity Index
4.6 Particle Filter
4.6.1 Sequential Importance Sampling
4.6.2 Particle Filter variants
4.6.3 Nonlinearity and Estimator performance
4.6.4 Choosing the right estimation algorithm
4.7 MATLAB implementation of estimation algorithms
4.7.1 EKF implementation
4.7.2 UKF implementation
4.7.3 SPUKF implementation
4.7.4 ESPUKF implementation
4.7.5 Particle Filter implementation
4.7.6 ESP-PF implementation
4.8 Summary
References
Chapter 5 Navigation and Tracking of Satellites
5.1 Overview
5.2 Initial Position and velocity computation
5.3 Satellite navigation and tracking using sequential estimation
5.3.1 System model
5.3.2 Satellite position and velocity estimation using azimuth, elevation and range observation
5.3.3 Satellite position and velocity estimation using multi-GNSS observation
5.3.4 Factors affecting estimation performance
5.4 Example MATLAB Implementation of GPS-based satellite navigation
5.5 Precise Orbit Determination
5.6 Real-time on-board navigation and other practical considerations
References
Chapter 6 Navigation and Tracking during launch and re-entry
6.1 Overview
6.2 Ground-based tracking of re-entry vehicle
6.3 Launch Vehicle Navigation using GPS
6.3.1 Reference trajectory generation
6.3.2 Implementation of sequential estimator
6.4 Example MATLAB implementation of launch vehicle and re-entry vehicle position estimation
6.4.1 Re-entry vehicle tracking
6.4.2 GNSS-based navigation of launch vehicle
6.5 Practical Considerations
References
Chapter 7 Navigation and tracking in lunar and deep space missions
7.1 Overview
7.2 Challanges in lunar and deep space navigation
7.3 Ground-based tracking of spacecraft in lunar transfer trajectory
7.3.1 State transition matrix
7.3.2 Partial Derivative of Measurements
7.4 Delay in observation
7.5 Implementation of navigation algorithm
7.6 Example MATLAB implementation for tracking a spacecraft in lunar transfer trajectory
7.7 Summary and Future directions
References
Appendix
A.1 Anomalies
A.2 Keplerian Elements to ECI Position and Velocity
A.3 ECI Position and Velocity to Keplerian Elements
A.4 Lambert Problem
Index