Satellite Formation for a Next Generation Gravimetry Mission

Cesare, Stefano; Mottini, Sergio; Musso, F.; Parisch, M.; Sechi, G.; Canuto, Enrico; Aguirre, Miguel; Leone, Bruno; Massotti, Luca; Silvestrin, Pierluigi

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-03501-2_11

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Anti-causal condition can only be approached, not met, in the DT case, because of the Nyquist frequency. In practice, 5 …”

Section: Hybridization and Frequency Coordinationmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Angular drag-free control and fine satellite-to-satellite pointing for the Next Generation Gravity Missions

Canuto

Colangelo

2014

2014 European Control Conference (ECC)

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The paper presents the design and some simulated results of the attitude control of a two-satellite formation under study by the European Space Agency for the Next Generation Gravity Mission. The formation spacecrafts, with a distance between them of more than 200 km and orbiting around the Earth at about 300 km altitude, must align their axis to the satellite-to-satellite line with a microradian accuracy (pointing control). This is made possible by specific optical sensors accompanying the inter-satellite laser interferometer. Such sensors allow each satellite to autonomously align after an acquisition procedure. Pointing control is constrained by the angular drag-free control, which, imposed by Earth gravimetry, must zero the spacecraft angular acceleration vector below 0.01 microradian/s 2 in the science bandwidth. This is made possible by ultrafine accelerometers of the GOCE-class, whose measurements must be coordinated with attitude sensors to meet drag-free and pointing requirements. Embedded Model Control shows how coordination can be implemented around the embedded model of the spacecraft attitude and of the formation frame quaternion. Evidence and discussion about some critical requirements is also included.

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“…Anti-causal condition can only be approached, not met, in the DT case, because of the Nyquist frequency. In practice, 5 …”

Section: Hybridization and Frequency Coordinationmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Such an alignment cannot be achieved by star trackers. Thus optical sensors capable of measuring the beam tilt are mandatory [5]. A second set of requirements comes from science.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Angular drag-free control and fine satellite-to-satellite pointing for the Next Generation Gravity Missions

Canuto

Colangelo

2014

2014 European Control Conference (ECC)

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“…(1) , Giorgio Biondetti (2) , Stefano Cesare (3) , Giuseppe Castorina (4) , Fabio Musso (5) , Marco Pisani (6) , Bruno Leone (4) Email: giuseppe.castorina@thalesaleniaspace.com (5) Email: fabio.musso@thalesaleniaspace.com (6) …”

Section: Laser Metrology For a Next Generation Gravimetric Mission Seunclassified

“…To achieve its objectives, the SSI mission shall make use of the so called Low-Low Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking technique, similar to that adopted on GRACE, but where the inter-satellite distance variation produced by the geopotential is measured by a laser interferometer rather than a radio-frequency ranging system. The intrinsically higher resolution of the laser interferometry allows in principle to reconstruct the Earth gravity field with a significantly higher spatial resolution, if the other relevant mission parameters and the accelerometers in charge of measuring the nongravitational accelerations on the satellite are sized to match the interferometer performance [4], [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Laser metrology for a next generation gravimetric mission

Mottini

Biondetti

Cesare

et al. 2017

International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2008

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Within the ESA technology research project "Laser Interferometer High Precision tracking for LEO", Thales Alenia Space Italia is developing a laser metrology system for a Next Generation Gravimetric Mission (NGGM) based on satellite-to-satellite tracking. This technique is based on the precise measurement of the displacement between two satellites flying in formation at low altitude for monitoring the variations of Earth's gravity field at high resolution over a long time period.The laser metrology system that has been defined for this mission consists of the following elements:• an heterodyne Michelson interferometer for measuring the distance variation between retroreflectors positioned on the two satellites; • an angle metrology for measuring the orientation of the laser beam in the reference frames of the two satellites; • a lateral displacement metrology for measuring the deviations of the laser beam axis from the target retro-reflector.The laser interferometer makes use of a chopped measurement beam to avoid spurious signals and nonlinearity caused by the unbalance between the strong local beam and the weak return beam.The main results of the design, development and test activities performed on the breadboard of the metrology system are summarized in this paper.

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Precise Establishment of the Next‐generation Earth Gravity Field Model From Hip‐3s Based on Combination of Inline and Pendulum Satellite Formations

Zheng

et al. 2017

Chinese J of Geophysics

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Because the sensitivity of the disturbing intersatellite range measurements to the recovery accuracy of the Earth's gravitational field is superior to that of the intersatellite range measurements, the observation equation of a new Disturbing Intersatellite Range Method (DIRM) is created in this study. Then the orbital stability of the next‐generation Hybrid‐Inline‐Pendulum‐Three‐Satellite (HIP‐3S) formation is efficiently verified. The research results indicate that the HIP‐3S formation is sufficiently steady for further enhancing the accuracy of the future Earth gravity field model. Finally, the Earth's gravitational field complete up to degree and order 120 is precisely recovered by the current GRACE‐2S inline formation and the next‐generation HIP‐3S combined formation based on the new DIRM, and the cumulative geoid height errors are 2.271×10−1 m and 1.923×10−3 m at degree 120, respectively. The study results show that the future HIP‐3S formation is helpful for producing the next‐generation Earth gravity field model with higher accuracy and spatial resolution.

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Satellite Formation for a Next Generation Gravimetry Mission

Cited by 9 publications

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Angular drag-free control and fine satellite-to-satellite pointing for the Next Generation Gravity Missions

Angular drag-free control and fine satellite-to-satellite pointing for the Next Generation Gravity Missions

Laser metrology for a next generation gravimetric mission

Precise Establishment of the Next‐generation Earth Gravity Field Model From Hip‐3s Based on Combination of Inline and Pendulum Satellite Formations

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