Performance Analysis of Crosslink Radiometric Measurement based Autonomous Orbit Determination for Cislunar Small Satellite Formations

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the performance of crosslink radiometric measurements for autonomous orbit determination of cislunar small satellite formations, highlighting measurement types, accuracy, biases, and network topology effects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed performance analysis of crosslink radiometric measurements, comparing measurement types, biases, and network topologies for autonomous orbit determination in cislunar space.

Findings

Range observations outperform range-rate in accuracy.

Line-of-sight angle measurements do not improve performance.

Mesh topology yields better state estimation than centralized topology.

Abstract

Recent advances in space technology provide an opportunity for small satellites to be launched in cislunar space. However, tracking these small satellites still depends on ground-based operations. Autonomous navigation could be a possible solution considering challenges presented by costly ground operations and limited onboard power available for small satellites. There have been various studies on autonomous navigation methods for cislunar missions. One of them, LiAISON, provides an autonomous orbit determination solution solely using inter-satellite measurements. This study aims at providing a detailed performance analysis of crosslink radiometric measurements based on autonomous orbit determination for cislunar small satellite formations considering the effects of measurement type, measurement accuracy, bias, formation geometry, and network topology. This study shows that range observations provide better state estimation accuracy than range-rate observations for the autonomous navigation system in cislunar space. Line-of-sight angle measurements derived from radiometric measurements do not improve the overall system performance. In addition, less precise crosslink measurement methods could be an option for formations in the high observable orbital configurations. It was found that measurement biases and measurements with high intervals reduce the overall system performance. In case there are more than two spacecraft in the formation, the navigation system in the mesh topology provided better overall state estimation than the centralized topology.