Autonomous navigation and attitude control of spacecraft's on near-earth circular orbits

• Main Authors: Germanovitch Vladimir Andronov, Gennadievitch Sergey Emelyanov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institut za istrazivanja i projektovanja u privredi 2018-01-01
• Series: Istrazivanja i projektovanja za privredu
• Subjects: star tracker; autonomous navigation of space crafts; navigation
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/1451-4117/2018/1451-41171801107G.pdf

The paper reviews existing methods of spacecraft navigation and attitude control on near-earth orbits, including the methods utilizing earth-based external trajectory measurement stations, global navigation satellite systems, inertial on-board navigation systems and star trackers. The proposed method is based on the obtaining and processing of a set of sky images on-board of a spacecraft that is moving along a near-earth circular orbit. Image processing results are used to find the coordinates, velocity and attitude of a spacecraft in inertial space.