Ephemeris error correction in celestial navigation system considering Earth’s precession-nutation

Abstract

Navigation systems are crucial space detector components. Advancements in optical equipment have made the Celestial Navigation System (CNS) continually more accessible. Ephemeris error, however, limits the CNS navigation accuracy. This paper proposes an autonomous CNS equipped with an ephemeris error correction model. The model provides the navigation stars’ high-accuracy ephemeris information for navigation stars based on the coupled effects of the Earth’s nutation and precession; this allows for effective positioning and attitude determination of space detector. The navigation star ephemeris errors under the proposed method are significantly improved compared to the traditional Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) star catalog recorded on January 1, 2000. The proposed method also shows more accurate space detector attitude and positioning estimations compared to another existing ephemeris error correction method. The proposed method can be effectively applied to high-accuracy attitude and position estimation.