Actions for Shuttle relative navigation of a tethered satellite mission with current on board software

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Shuttle relative navigation of a tethered satellite mission with current on board software

Author
Lee, Kevin A.
Published
Oct 1, 1989.
Physical Description
1 electronic document
Online Version

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Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
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Summary
A Shuttle mission planned in 1991 will test the feasibility of tethers in space. This mission, a joint effort between Italy and the United States, will connect a satellite (built by the Italians) to the Shuttle with a 20 km long tether. This mission poses unique navigation problems. The flight software on the Shuttle was never designed to account for the low level acceleration that is generated by the gravity gradient. IMUs on the Shuttle was never designed to account for the low level acceleration that is generated by the gravity gradient. Inertial Maneuvering Units on the shuttle will sense the acceleration of the tether but it turns out that incorporating the continuous accelerometer noise also generates large error growth. Relative navigation is another important issue since the majority of the mission will be conducted while the satellite is out of the visual range of the crew. Some kind of feedback on the motion of the satellite will be desirable. Feedback of the satellite motion can be generated by using the rendezvous radar. To process the radar measurements, the flight software uses a 13 state Kalman Filter, but unfortunately with the filter currently tuned as it is, valid measurements tend to be ignored. This is due to the constraint of the tether on the satellite, which is an unmodeled force. Analysis shows that with proper tuning, relative navigation is possible.
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
Note
Document ID: 19900004107.
Accession ID: 90N13423.
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Flight Mechanics(Estimation Theory Symposium, 1989; p 149-168.
Terms of Use and Reproduction
No Copyright.
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