Evaluation of Multiple GNSS Navigation Performance in Lunar Transfer Orbit and Circumlunar Orbit

Abstract

Positioning of high-orbit spacecraft using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is an important expansion application of GNSS. With the introduction of GNSS such as Beidou-3 (BDS-3), the number of navigation satellites has increased dramatically, which can significantly increase the GNSS positioning performance of high-orbit spacecraft. In this paper, multi-GNSS positioning performance simulation and evaluation are carried out for high-orbit spacecraft in lunar exploration missions such as Lunar Transfer Orbit (LTO) and circumlunar orbit. The simulation results show that BDS-3 can effectively increase the number of visible satellites during the LTO and circumlunar orbit. With the increase of altitude, the number of visible satellites is greatly reduced due to the limitation of received power, but there are still a few visible satellites in LTO and circumlunar orbit. On the premise of considering the signal range of navigation satellites and removing the receiver power limit, the use of BDS-3 can improve the distribution of Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP) values and positioning errors during the LTO and circumlunar orbit, which provides feasibility for autonomous navigation of high-orbit spacecraft in lunar exploration missions.