Orbit determination using modern filters/smoothers and continuous thrust modeling

The development of electric propulsion technology for spacecraft has led to reduced costs and longer lifespans for certain types of satellites. Because these satellites frequently undergo continuous thrust, predicting their motion and performing orbit determination on them has introduced complications for space surveillance networks. One way to improve orbit determination for these satellites is to make use of new estimation techniques. This has been accomplished by applying the Backward Smoothing Extended Kalman Filter (BSEKF) to the problem of orbit determination. The BSEKF outperforms other nonlinear filters because it treats nonlinearities in both the measurement and dynamic functions. The performance of this filter is evaluated in comparison to an existing Extended Semianalytic Kalman Filter (ESKF). The BSEKF was implemented in the R&D Goddard Trajectory Determination System (GTDS) for this thesis while the ESKF was implemented in 1981 and has been tested extensively since then. Radar and optical satellite tracking observations were simulated using an initial truth orbit and were processed by the ESKF and BSEKF to estimate satellite trajectories. The trajectory estimates from each filter were compared with the initial truth orbit and were evaluated for accuracy and convergence speed. The BSEKF provided substantial improvements in accuracy and convergence over the ESKF for the simulated test cases. Additionally, this study used the solutions offered by optimal thrust trajectory analysis to model the perturbations caused by continuous thrust. Optimal thrust trajectory analysis makes use of Optimal Control Theory and numerical optimization techniques to calculate minimum time and minimum fuel trajectories from one orbit to another.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Folcik, Zachary James

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Paul J. Cefola and Jonathan P. How.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44936

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44936