Preliminary orbit determination using satellite-to-satellite limited range and range-rate data

Abstract

A method is presented for the problem of preliminary orbit determination by use of limited range and/or range-rate data with random initial guesses. This method, based on observation function minimization techniques, is essentially a deterministic process. The problem considered consists of an unknown geocentric satellite observed by either one or two tracking satellites using minimum measurement data sets for the determination of the unknown satellite's orbital elements. Additional data, in excess of the minimum data, are used to identify spurious solutions. The feasibility of achieving satisfactory orbit determination has been explored by simulation studies. It is found that using two observers to track the unknown satellite produces faster convergence even with poor initial guesses. Numerical examples show that computational time can be reduced about ten to thirty percent over that using only one observer.