Small Satellite Orbit Determination Using Single Pass Doppler Measurements

Abstract

The Doppler measurements of the telemetry radio signals nanosatellite CubeBel-1 for a single pass over the Belarusian State University ground station were carried out. Two methods for orbit determination of a small satellite (SS) are considered. The first method is based on the SGP4 model and requires additional information from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) two-line elements (TLE) catalog of the satellite orbital parameters. An unknown SS is identified using the NORAD TLE catalog based on a probabilistic estimation of the elevation angle and the Doppler frequency shift of receiving telemetry signals. The first method was allowed to determine the nanosatellite CubeBel-1 unambiguously. The second method is based on processing experimental measurements of the Doppler frequency of the telemetry radio signals and the Keplerian circular motion model for SS. It does not require additional information from the NORAD database of satellite orbital parameters. The second method was allowed only to calculate the average state vector unknown satellite. Finally, the corrected state vector in the geocentric inertial coordinate system was obtained based on the differential correction method.