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Initial results of centralized autonomous orbit determination of the new-generation BDS satellites with inter-satellite link measurements

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Abstract

Autonomous orbit determination is the ability of navigation satellites to estimate the orbit parameters on-board using inter-satellite link (ISL) measurements. This study mainly focuses on data processing of the ISL measurements as a new measurement type and its application on the centralized autonomous orbit determination of the new-generation Beidou navigation satellite system satellites for the first time. The ISL measurements are dual one-way measurements that follow a time division multiple access (TDMA) structure. The ranging error of the ISL measurements is less than 0.25 ns. This paper proposes a derivation approach to the satellite clock offsets and the geometric distances from TDMA dual one-way measurements without a loss of accuracy. The derived clock offsets are used for time synchronization, and the derived geometry distances are used for autonomous orbit determination. The clock offsets from the ISL measurements are consistent with the L-band two-way satellite, and time–frequency transfer clock measurements and the detrended residuals vary within 0.5 ns. The centralized autonomous orbit determination is conducted in a batch mode on a ground-capable server for the feasibility study. Constant hardware delays are present in the geometric distances and become the largest source of error in the autonomous orbit determination. Therefore, the hardware delays are estimated simultaneously with the satellite orbits. To avoid uncertainties in the constellation orientation, a ground anchor station that “observes” the satellites with on-board ISL payloads is introduced into the orbit determination. The root-mean-square values of orbit determination residuals are within 10.0 cm, and the standard deviation of the estimated ISL hardware delays is within 0.2 ns. The accuracy of the autonomous orbits is evaluated by analysis of overlap comparison and the satellite laser ranging (SLR) residuals and is compared with the accuracy of the L-band orbits. The results indicate that the radial overlap differences between the autonomous orbits are less than 15.0 cm for the inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites and less than 10.0 cm for the MEO satellites. The SLR residuals are approximately 15.0 cm for the IGSO satellites and approximately 10.0 cm for the MEO satellites, representing an improvement over the L-band orbits.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) for the provision of the SLR measurements of the BDS satellites. This work was supported by the National Key Research Program of China “Collaborative Precision Positioning Project” (No. 2016YFB0501900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41574029 and 41274043) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (Grant No. 2016242).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Science, No. 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai, 200030, China

    Chengpan Tang, Xiaogong Hu, Shanshi Zhou & Junyang Pan

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing, 100049, China

    Chengpan Tang & Junyang Pan

  3. Beijing Satellite Navigation Center, No. 22 Beiqing Road, Beijing, 100094, China

    Li Liu, Liucheng Chen, Rui Guo, Lingfeng Zhu, Guangming Hu, Xiaojie Li & Zhiqiao Chang

  4. Shanghai Key Laboratory for Space Positioning and Navigation, No. 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai, 200030, China

    Xiaogong Hu & Shanshi Zhou

  5. National Defense University, No. 3 Hongsankoujia Road, Beijing, 100091, China

    Feng He

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  1. Chengpan Tang
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Correspondence to Chengpan Tang.

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Author contributions

XH and SZ provided the initial idea for this study. LL, JP and RG collected the original measurements. LC and LZ pre-processed the original measurements. CT and GH conducted the experiments and performed data analysis. CT and XH wrote the article. XL helped with the data analysis. FH and ZC gave helpful suggestions and improved the quality of the article during revision process.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data availability

All the test data used in this contribution including the ISL measurements, the anchor measurements and the L-band measurements are provided by Beijing Satellite Navigation Canter. The test data are currently not available to the scientific community because they are still under test process.

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Tang, C., Hu, X., Zhou, S. et al. Initial results of centralized autonomous orbit determination of the new-generation BDS satellites with inter-satellite link measurements. J Geod 92, 1155–1169 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-018-1113-7

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