Autonomous Inertial Relative Navigation with Sight-Line-Stabilized Sensors for Spacecraft Rendezvous

Abstract

This paper presents a novel autonomous inertial relative navigation technique with a sight-line-stabilized integrated sensor system for midrange (20-1 km) spacecraft rendezvous. A continuous-discrete six-state extended Kalman filter is developed for this purpose. The integrated sensor suite onboard an active chaser satellite comprises an imaging sensor, a coboresighted laser range finder, the space-integrated Global Positioning System/inertial navigation system, and a star tracker. For high accuracy of the relative navigation, the Kalman filter state vector consists of the inertial position and velocity of the client satellite governed by a high-fidelity nonlinear orbital dynamics model. The error covariance matrix is formulated in terms of the estimation error in the relative position and velocity of the client satellite, consistent with the sensor measurements. Inertial attitude pointing and rate commands for tracking the client satellite are determined using the estimates of the client's inertial relative position and velocity. To estimate the inertial attitude of the chaser satellite outside the space-integrated Global Positioning System/inertial navigation system, a new three-axis steady-state analytical attitude estimator is developed that blends the gyro-and the star-tracker-measured attitudes. The simulation results of a midrange spacecraft rendezvous using glideslope guidance validate this new six-state autonomous inertial relative navigation technique. The simulation results show that the imaging sensor's sight line can be stabilized at the client satellite in midrange accurately enough to enable the laser range finder to measure the range occasionally, but these measurements are not necessary for the midrange rendezvous phase, because the extended Kalman filter can estimate the range with the angle measurements of the imaging sensor.

A Comparison of Algorithms for Computing Differential Mean Orbital Elements in Formation Flying Missions

“…[17][18][19][20] Relative navigation can estimate relative position Δr and velocity Δv in ECI frame through a combination of a radio crosslink and an optical imaging device 17,18 or Carrier-Phase Differential Global Positioning System(CDGPS) measurements 19,20 . Absolute navigation can estimate absolute position r and velocity v also in ECI frame through GPS receivers.…”

Adaptive sliding‐mode control for spacecraft relative position tracking with maneuvering target

“…Different with the cooperative target that enables the chaser to estimate the relative position state and employs the orbit control system to take cooperative operation, 3 the target spacecrafts such as space debris and enemy satellite in these missions are noncooperative, so there is no cross-link communication between the chaser and target spacecrafts or the target has the unknown orbit maneuver. 4 Consequently, the precise relative position control is extremely challenging and crucially important to the successful accomplishment of these missions.…”

Flight Results of Vision-Based Navigation for Autonomous Spacecraft Inspection of Unknown Objects

“…Recently, a number of theoretical research studies have addressed the problem of spacecraft navigation for proximity operations. In particular, Hablani [3] proposed a relative navigation technique for autonomous rendezvous and docking using an integrated sensor suite onboard an active chaser satellite, which comprises an imaging sensor, a laser range finder, the space-integrated GPS and inertial navigation system, and a star tracker. However, it is well known that GPS and GPS-like signals are susceptible to interference and jamming.…”