Numerically calculating effects of various factors on spacecraft orbit computation precision

Huanlong Chen, Jun Zhou, Yingying Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

We aim to provide compendious information on spacecraft orbit computation precision. Section 1 of the full paper briefs the basic program flow for computing the spacecraft orbit. Subsection 2.1 presents in Fig.1 and Table 1 the results of calculation on the effect of coordinate system transformation on spacecraft orbit computation precision. Subsections 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 present in ten tables the results of calculating the effects of: (1)time system transformation, (2)the simplified model of gravitation field, (3)the perturbation of atmospheric drag, (4)the perturbation of the third body gravitation, (5)the perturbation of sunlight pressure, (6)other perturbations. Section 4 gives the following preliminary conclusions: (1)the effects of the perturbation of sunlight pressure and the perturbation of the third body gravitation both increase with increasing orbit altitude; (2)the effects of other perturbations like perturbation of atmospheric drag and earth gravitation both decrease with increasing orbit altitude; (3)for low orbit spacecraft, because of larger velocity and acceleration, the effects of various perturbations are more obvious.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)635-640
Number of pages6
JournalXibei Gongye Daxue Xuebao/Journal of Northwestern Polytechnical University
Volume27
Issue number5
StatePublished - Oct 2009

Keywords

  • Computation precision
  • Numerical analysis
  • Orbits
  • Perturbation
  • Spacecraft

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