Initial Orbit Determination from Only Heading Measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel initial orbit determination method using only heading measurements, relevant for spacecraft with visual odometry, and demonstrates its feasibility through numerical simulations.

Contribution

It presents the first formulation of initial orbit determination solely from heading data and develops an iterative solution based on orbital hodographs.

Findings

Successful numerical validation in low lunar orbit scenarios

Establishes the feasibility of heading-only orbit determination

Encourages further research into hodograph-based methods

Abstract

This work introduces the problem of initial orbit determination (IOD) from only heading measurements. Such a problem occurs in practice when estimating the orbit of a spacecraft using visual odometry measurements from an optical camera. After reviewing the problem geometry, a simple solution is developed in the form of an iterative scheme on the parameters describing the orbital hodograph. Numerical results are presented for an example spacecraft in low lunar orbit. The principal intent of this brief study is to communicate the existence of a new class of IOD problem to the community and to encourage the broader study of hodographs and heading-only IOD.