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Aerospace
Special Issues
Tracking and Navigation of Small Satellite Missions
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Tracking and Navigation of Small Satellite Missions

A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Astronautics & Space Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 3760

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Paolo Marzioli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, via Eudossiana 18, 00184, Rome, Italy
Interests: CubeSats; small satellites; satellites system engineering; satellite constellations; in-orbit experiments; satellite navigation; space system development and operations; space traffic management; space debris
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Masahiro Nohmi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka 422-8529, Japan
Interests: nano-satellite development; satellites cooperative control; space robotics; lunar and planetary exploration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing congestion in low orbits and the rising mission concepts for farther missions, such as high orbit, near-Earth, Lunar or Deep Space missions, are forcing us to provide better methodologies and improved procedures for tracking and navigation of spacecraft. In particular, the last few years have seen an exponential increase in launches with special regard to small and medium-size satellites. This Special Issue aims to gather all the efforts made to improve tracking, navigation, orbit determination, and maneuver planning of all classes of satellites, with a particular focus on small satellites and CubeSats.

The topics addressed by this issue include but are not limited to satellite navigation and orbit determination, satellites and debris tracking, sensor data fusion for spacecraft and debris trajectory determination, attitude determination, re-entry trajectories, maneuver planning, applications for space traffic management, and mission analysis and tracking systems design for near-Earth, Deep Space or high orbit missions. Other contributions that may be expected to be included in the Special Issue concern mission and maneuver planning for the new-generation mega-constellations of small satellites, and how to effectively track them and to prevent any risky events associated with space traffic management and space debris creation.

Dr. Paolo Marzioli
Prof. Dr. Masahiro Nohmi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

28 pages, 15176 KiB  
Article
Three Satellites Dynamic Switching Range Integrated Navigation and Positioning Algorithm with Clock Bias Cancellation and Altimeter Assistance
by Lvyang Ye, Ning Gao, Yikang Yang, Lingyu Deng and Hengnian Li
Aerospace 2023, 10(5), 411; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10050411 - 28 Apr 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1068
Abstract
Challenging environments such as cities, canyons, and forests have become key factors affecting navigation stability. When users pass through intricate overpasses and winding road sections, due to the fluctuation of the geoid, there will be a large fluctuation problem in the elevation measurement [...] Read more.
Challenging environments such as cities, canyons, and forests have become key factors affecting navigation stability. When users pass through intricate overpasses and winding road sections, due to the fluctuation of the geoid, there will be a large fluctuation problem in the elevation measurement error of the user’s receiver. In addition, even if the low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation has thousands of satellites, there will be no technical problems in regard to destroying LEO satellites with existing technology in extreme situations such as warfare and in challenging environments such as dense forests, canyons, and ravines, where three or fewer visible satellites is a foreseeable scenario. To solve the problem of providing location services in such challenging environments, first, we analyze the relationship between temperature and atmospheric pressure and altitude; and then, based on this, we propose an initialization correction method for elevation measurements. Next, based on the broadband LEO constellation, we give an integrated navigation and positioning scheme with the assistance of both a clock bias elimination system and an altimeter. Finally, the proposed scheme is simulated and verified. The experimental results show that the dynamic switching of LEO satellites, combined with the assistance of the altimeter, can effectively improve the stability and positioning accuracy of navigation and positioning and can suppress the large navigation errors caused by the long switching time without the assistance of the altimeter. This allows the switching time to be extended; thus, it can be used as a technical reference solution for integrated communication and navigation (ICN) in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tracking and Navigation of Small Satellite Missions)
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23 pages, 3106 KiB  
Article
Initial Tracking, Fast Identification in a Swarm and Combined SLR and GNSS Orbit Determination of the TUBIN Small Satellite
by Clément Jonglez, Julian Bartholomäus, Philipp Werner and Enrico Stoll
Aerospace 2022, 9(12), 793; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9120793 - 3 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1701
Abstract
Flight dynamics is a topic often overlooked by operators of small satellites without propulsion systems, as two-line elements (TLE) are easily accessible and accurate enough for most ground segment needs. However, the advent of cheap and miniaturized global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers [...] Read more.
Flight dynamics is a topic often overlooked by operators of small satellites without propulsion systems, as two-line elements (TLE) are easily accessible and accurate enough for most ground segment needs. However, the advent of cheap and miniaturized global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers and laser retroreflectors as well as modern, easy-to-use, open-source software tools have made it easier to accurately determine an orbit or to identify a spacecraft in a swarm, which helps with improving the space situational awareness in orbits that are more and more crowded. In this paper, we present tools for small satellite missions to generate orbit predictions for the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), identify spacecraft in a swarm after a rideshare launch, and carry out routine orbit determination from multiple sources of tracking data. The TUBIN mission’s LEOP phase set a new standard at Technische Universität Berlin: the first global positioning system (GPS) data were downloaded less than four hours after separation, orbit predictions allowed successful tracking by the ground stations, and the spacecraft could be identified in the swarm as soon as the TLE were released by Space-Track. Routine orbit determination from GPS and satellite laser ranging (SLR) tracking data was carried out over several months, and the quality of the orbit predictions was analyzed. The range residuals and prediction errors were found to be larger than those of most SLR missions, which was due to the difficulty of modeling the atmospheric drag of a tumbling, non-spherical spacecraft at low orbital altitudes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tracking and Navigation of Small Satellite Missions)
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