Assessing Parameters of the Coplanar Components of Perturbing Accelerations Using the Minimal Number of Optical Observations

Abstract

The method presented in this paper is developed to assess the parameters (the application moment and the magnitude of a velocity impulse) of a maneuver-like perturbation of motion of the center of mass of a spacecraft in a near-circular orbit. The assessment is based on the information on the spacecraft’s trajectory before the maneuver and the optical observations of the spacecraft’s angular position (right ascension and declination angles) after the maneuver. This study considers the cases of solely transversal (in-track) or transversal and radial components of the velocity increment vector. A single pair of the values of angles is used for the assessment of the single transversal maneuver parameters and two pairs are used in the other cases. The method also makes it possible to estimate the parameters of a continuous maneuver performed with low-thrust engines. For this case the property of its symmetry is used. The approach described in this article makes it possible to determine the spacecraft’s orbit after the maneuver much faster and more accurately in comparison to traditional methods.

Assessment of Non-Coplanar Maneuver Parameters and Perturbing Accelerations Using the Minimal Number of Observations

“…This mainly relates to the membranous objects with big varying area-to-mass ratios. This, and previously published works [3], allow us to increase the quality of motion propagation of the challenging objects, which comprise almost 50% of the objects in the GSO, registered in different catalogues. First of all, this refers to the maneuvering objects.…”

“…Thus, this work, with the work [3], will allow us to improve considerably the orbit determination technology of approximately half of the objects in the geostationary orbit, currently registered in the catalogues of different organizations.…”

“…Usually, only the fact that the maneuver took place is established in the papers. Paper [1] contains 55 items in bibliography list considering the maneuver assessment, paper [2]-49, and our work [3] contains 26 items. These lists differ from each other almost completely.…”

“…This will allow us to improve the accuracy of the motion propagation of the objects of this type. This paper contains the development of the methodology published in [3], in which only coplanar maneuvers were considered and the perturbing accelerations were not determined.…”