GPS Relative Navigation for the CanX-4 and CanX-5 Formation-Flying Nanosatellites

Kahr, Erin; Roth, Niels; Montenbruck, Oliver; Risi, Ben; Zee, Robert E.

doi:10.2514/1.a34117

Cited by 27 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The source of the control force is typically a reaction control propulsion system. Only a few missions have been realized so far, such as Prisma [8], CanX-4/5 [13] and Hawkeye [14]. Very recently, the Net-Sats [15] formation flight mission has been launched; Yoon [16] demonstrates the use of drag for limited relative orbit control, i.e., the keeping distance between different satellites for collision avoidance.…”

Section: Formation Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous formation flight using solar radiation pressure

Thoemel

Dam

2021

CEAS Space J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Autonomous formation flight enables new satellite missions for novel applications. The cost and limits of propulsion systems can be overcome if environmental resources are being benefitted of. Currently, atmospheric drag is used in low Earth orbit to this end. Solar radiation pressure, which is of similar order of magnitude as aerodynamic ram pressure, is, however, always neglected. We introduce this force and show that it can be exploited. We demonstrate through simulations that a formation geometry is established quicker if the solar radiation pressure is modeled.

show abstract

Section: Formation Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous formation flight using solar radiation pressure

Thoemel

Dam

2021

CEAS Space J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In comparison with flight demonstration missions such as PRISMA and CanX‐4/5, DiGiTaL shows a marked improvement as documented by Table . Both missions estimate the carrier‐phase ambiguity as float values, thereby achieving relative positioning uncertainty of 6 cm and 2 cm (1D RMS), respectively. CanX‐4/5 was able to improve on PRISMA due to the smaller spacecraft size, minimizing the effects of uncertain attitudes and multipath.…”

Section: Verification and Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Global Positioning System relative navigation has been successfully demonstrated in spacecraft formation‐flying science missions such as NASA/DLR's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), DLR's TerraSAR‐X Add‐on for Digital Elevation Measurement (TanDEM‐X), and NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission . In contrast to the ground‐based approach of these missions, GPS relative navigation has also been pushed to high levels of autonomy on technology demonstration missions like the Swedish Space Corporation's Prototype Research Instruments and Space Mission technology Advancement (PRISMA) mission and Canada's CanX‐4/5 . By exchanging GPS measurements between cooperatively orbiting spacecraft, these missions have been able to achieve relative navigation solutions with unprecedented precision onboard.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Distributed multi‐GNSS timing and localization for nanosatellites

Giralo

D’Amico

2019

NAVIGATION

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent advances in distribution and miniaturization among spacecraft and expansion of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) motivate the Distributed Multi-GNSS Timing and Localization system. The DiGiTaL system is intended to provide nanosatellite swarms with unprecedented centimeter-level relative navigation accuracy in real time and nanosecond-level time synchronization through the integration of a multiconstellation GNSS receiver, a chipscale atomic clock, and an intersatellite link. This paper describes DiGiTaL's hardware and software design, architecture, and navigation software in detail.The swarming spacecraft are grouped into subsets, where differential GNSS is performed by a precise orbit determination module with integer ambiguity resolution in real time. The resulting precise orbits are then exchanged and fused by a swarm determination module, creating full-swarm knowledge. Finally, the DiGiTaL architecture is integrated into CubeSat avionics and tested with key hardware in the loop using Stanford's GNSS navigation testbed. For the first time, this paper shows the capability to perform centimeter-level precise relative navigation using commercial-off-the-shelf CubeSat hardware for spacecraft swarms.

show abstract

“…Both CubeSats controlled the GPS antenna to ensure that the zenith received as many common GPS signals as possible, and an additional attitude control was conducted to minimize the effect of the slewing of GPS satellites (Johnston‐Lemke & Zee, 2010). It achieved a relative accuracy < 10 cm that degraded to several meters during maneuvering (Kahr et al., 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative navigation technique with constrained GNSS data for formation‐flying CubeSat mission, CANYVAL‐C

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study introduces and verifies a relative navigation technique for two CubeSats in formation flying as part of the CANYVAL‐C mission. Because the mission requires precision and robustness subject to restricted computational complexity, the technique employs an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and raw GNSS data to achieve relative navigation. The relative navigation technique is composed of two parts: parameter‐tuning using an Adaptive Kalman Filter (AKF) in a ground station, and the application of the adaptively determined parameters to allow onboard EKF. Based on Hardware‐in‐the‐Loop Simulations (HILS), the relative positioning error of the EKF with adaptively determined parameters ranged from 10 to 20 cm on each axis (3σ) and satisfied the mission requirement of 1 m. The simulations confirm that the technique yields reliable relative navigation and a realistic error covariance without imposing a computational burden on the CubeSat, as well as reduces the time required for parameter tuning.

show abstract

GPS Relative Navigation for the CanX-4 and CanX-5 Formation-Flying Nanosatellites

Cited by 27 publications

References 15 publications

Autonomous formation flight using solar radiation pressure

Autonomous formation flight using solar radiation pressure

Distributed multi‐GNSS timing and localization for nanosatellites

Relative navigation technique with constrained GNSS data for formation‐flying CubeSat mission, CANYVAL‐C

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About