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Article
Initial Relative Orbit Determination Using Multiple Los Measurements and Gaussian Mixture Models
Proceedings of the 24th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting (2014, Santa Fe, NM)
  • Keith A. Legrand
  • Kyle J. DeMars, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Henry J. Pernicka, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Abstract

The unobservability of space-based angles-only orbit determination can be mitigated by the inclusion of angle measurements from a second optical sensor fixed at a known baseline on the observing spacecraft. Previous approaches to the problem have used these stereoscopic angles to triangulate the position of a second satellite at a given time step. However, due to the nonlinearity of stereo triangulation, zero-mean Gaussian noise of these measurements cannot be assumed. This work investigates a modified approach in which the uncertainty of both angle measurements is used to bound a region for all possible positions of the second satellite. A Gaussian mixture that represents uniform uncertainty across the bounded region for the position of the second object is constructed at two initial time steps. Linkage of the Gaussian mixtures is performed using a new second-order relative Lambert solver in order to formulate a full state probability density function that can be further refined through processing subsequent measurement data in a Bayesian framework.

Meeting Name
24th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting (2014: Jan. 26-30, Santa Fe, NM)
Department(s)
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
  • Angle measurement,
  • Data handling,
  • Gaussian distribution,
  • Orbits,
  • Probability density function,
  • Space flight,
  • Stereo image processing,
  • Tracking (position),
  • Uncertainty analysis,
  • Bayesian frameworks,
  • Gaussian Mixture Model,
  • Gaussian mixtures,
  • LOS measurement,
  • Measurement data,
  • Orbit determination,
  • Stereo triangulation,
  • Unobservability,
  • Gaussian noise (electronic)
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
978-0877036111
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2014 Univelt Inc., All rights reserved.
Publication Date
1-1-2014
Publication Date
01 Jan 2014
Disciplines
Citation Information
Keith A. Legrand, Kyle J. DeMars and Henry J. Pernicka. "Initial Relative Orbit Determination Using Multiple Los Measurements and Gaussian Mixture Models" Proceedings of the 24th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting (2014, Santa Fe, NM) Vol. 152 (2014) p. 1343 - 1359 ISSN: 0065-3438
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/henry-pernicka/23/