Skymark selection algorithm for a space-based navigational concept
Name
54090452-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
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35.89 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
2e808f4f75ca25e9098b9455ac344ef9
Author(s)
Kaptuch, James A. (James Anthony), 1979-
Advisor(s)
Richard Phillips.
Date Issued
2002
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The angles-only navigational concept envisions using orbiting satellites and other space objects as a set of moving landmarks, or skymarks, to improve upon an observer's knowledge of its position in space. This is accomplished by taking line of sight, or angles-only, measurements from an observer to a skymark using a modified star tracker, and then making use of triangulation to estimate the observer's location. A Kalman filter is used to update the observer's knowledge of its state, and the uncertainty concomitant with that knowledge can then be determined. This thesis covers the development of an algorithm for selecting four successive skymarks to be viewed by an observer, with a goal of minimizing both the observer's error in its position estimate and the time required to make the selection. During the development process a number of different algorithms were developed and compared, both with one another and with an algorithm that determined the optimal answer, in order to determine the one that best met the above criteria. Factors taken into account by the various algorithms include the geometry of the four observed skymarks, the distance between observer and skymark, the errors associated with the observer's knowledge of the skymark's state, and the effects of the observer's motion on error propagation.
Description
Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 161).
Subjects
Aeronautics and Astronautics.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
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