Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Aviation Program Group
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Aviation Program Group
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Engineering Department, Kamakura Works
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Mechatronics Department, Advanced Technology R & D Center
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Aviation Program Group
High-accuracy GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning technology would facilitate formation flight and rendezvous docking of spacecraft, and would make possible several new kinds of space mission. We investigated the feasibility of a relative navigation system for spacecraft using GPS carrier phase interferometry. First, the visibility of GPS satellites from a spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) was analyzed, and then error models of the GPS measurements were examined. Next, case studies of GPS kinematic positioning using simulated GPS measurements were carried out, and positioning error propagation analyses were performed when the polynomial approximation method was used. Centimeter-level positioning accuracy was achieved, though performance was affected by ionospheric activity and multipath error.