Low-Earth Orbit Spacecraft Relative orbit and attitude decentralized estimation.
- Paper number
IAC-14,C1,6,6,x25161
- Author
Mr. Adolfo Chaves Jimenez, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Mr. Daniel Choukroun, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Prof. Eberhard Gill, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
- Year
2014
- Abstract
In recent years, the field of spacecraft design is witnessing an emerging paradigm shift from traditional large single satellites to distributed small satellites acting in a collaborative manner. Several types of missions would be hardly achievable if not for a distributed space mission approach. In order to enable these emerging distributed space missions, critical technology activities need to be addressed. A critical field for mission success is spacecraft relative position and attitude estimation and control. The proposed work is concerned with a study on relative navigation accuracy enhancement in a multi-satellites network thanks to the coupling between the relative orbital and attitude dynamics. The case of low-earth flying satellites, with a relatively strong coupling due to the atmospheric drag, is considered. Furthermore, a decentralized configuration of the estimation algorithm is suggested, where each satellite builds a local navigation estimate based on local measurements and transmitted information through inter-satellites links. The DelFFi mission is proposed as a case study; DelFFI is a two CubeSat formation flying mission by the Delft University of Technology in the framework of the QB50 mission. The final manuscript will present the linearized relative orbit-attitude dynamics for a multi-satellites system, include an observability analysis of the coupled dynamical system, present the development of a decentralized relative orbit-attitude observer, and illustrate the proposed navigation algorithm performances through extensive numerical Monte-Carlo simulations. Performance comparisons with a decoupled attitude-orbit estimator and with a centralized estimator will be performed.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)