Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “GROUND TRACK”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1972

Error studies for ground tracking of synchronous satellites

The results of various sets of tracking error analysis studies of the ability of ground stations to determine the position and velocity of synchronous satellites are summarized. The effects of varying: (1) the ground station configuration from 1 to 6 tracking stations in differing locations; (2) the ground station measurement type such as S-Band, C-Band, VHF, and lasers and (3) the uncertainties in ground station location are investigated. The linear error analysis computer program used includes the effects of ground tracking station location uncertainties, measurement noise and biases, and station timing bias. Results show that two ground trackers are needed if at least 2000 meters position accuracy is desired, with a favorable two-station solution giving less than 500 meters position accuracy. Under favorable circumstances, a multi-station laser solution gives a synchronous satellite position accuracy of less than 100 meters. The various cases illustrate features of synchronous satellite tracking from ground stations.

Cooley, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Repeat Ground Track Lunar Orbits in the Full-Potential Plus Third-Body Problem

A high degree and order Lunar gravitational field is superimposed on the Earth-Moon Restricted Three Body model to capture the dominating forces on a spacecraft in the vicinity of the Moon. For the synchronously rotating Moon, periodic orbits in this model map repeat ground tracks and represent higher order solutions to the frozen orbit problem. The near-circular, stable or near-stable solutions are found over a wide range of defining characteristics making them suitable for long-lifetime parking applications such as science orbits, crew exploration vehicle parking orbits, and global coverage constellation orbits. A full ephemeris is considered for selected orbits to evaluate the validity of the time-invariant, simplified model. Of the most promising results are the low-altitude families of near-circular, inclined orbits that maintain long-term stability despite the highly non-spherical Lunar gravity. The method is systematic and enables rapid design and analysis of long-life orbits around any tidally-locked celestial body with an arbitrarily high degree and order spherical harmonic gravity field. .

periodic↗
NASA NTRS2009

Navigating the Return Trip from the Moon Using Earth-Based Ground Tracking and GPS

NASA s Constellation Program is planning a human return to the Moon late in the next decade. From a navigation perspective, one of the most critical phases of a lunar mission is the series of burns performed to leave lunar orbit, insert onto a trans-Earth trajectory, and target a precise re-entry corridor in the Earth s atmosphere. A study was conducted to examine sensitivity of the navigation performance during this phase of the mission to the type and availability of tracking data from Earth-based ground stations, and the sensitivity to key error sources. This study also investigated whether GPS measurements could be used to augment Earth-based tracking data, and how far from the Earth GPS measurements would be useful. The ability to track and utilize weak GPS signals transmitted across the limb of the Earth is highly dependent on the configuration and sensitivity of the GPS receiver being used. For this study three GPS configurations were considered: a "standard" GPS receiver with zero dB antenna gain, a "weak signal" GPS receiver with zero dB antenna gain, and a "weak signal" GPS receiver with an Earth-pointing direction antenna (providing 10 dB additional gain). The analysis indicates that with proper selection and configuration of the GPS receiver on the Orion spacecraft, GPS can potentially improve navigation performance during the critical final phases of flight prior to Earth atmospheric entry interface, and may reduce reliance on two-way range tracking from Earth-based ground stations.

Berry, Kevin↗
NASA NTRS1966

Ground tracking of Apollo.

Apollo Manned Space Flight Network /MSFN/ TRACKING and communications systems for tracking lunar spacecraft

LUNAR EXCURSION MODULE /LEM/↗
NASA NTRS1985

Gravitational wave searches with ground tracking networks

Long-term experiments designed to search for gravitational waves (GW) have been performed with the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, and are planned for NASA's Galileo and ESA's Ulysses spacecraft. The result of a passing monochromatic GW is a sinusoidal modulation of the Doppler series that depends on the round-trip light time (RTLT) to a spacecraft and on the angle between the radiation propagation direction and the spacecraft link. Thus, an ideal experiment must have coverage and monitoring of interplanetary spacecraft during cruise that must be continuous as the earth turns to permit observation of complete three-pulse responses over the RTLT. To achieve this goal, an international 40-day Joint Tracking Experiment (JTE) is planned for the fall of 1987 for continuous tracking of the two spacecraft, when both will be near solar opposition. A diagram of the tracking geometry during the JTE and diagrams illustrating theoretical GW properties are included.

Estabrook, F. B.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Open solutions to distributed control in ground tracking stations

The advent of high speed local area networks has made it possible to interconnect small, powerful computers to function together as a single large computer. Today, distributed computer systems are the new paradigm for large scale computing systems. However, the communications provided by the local area network is only one part of the solution. The services and protocols used by the application programs to communicate across the network are as indispensable as the local area network. And the selection of services and protocols that do not match the system requirements will limit the capabilities, performance, and expansion of the system. Proprietary solutions are available but are usually limited to a select set of equipment. However, there are two solutions based on 'open' standards. The question that must be answered is 'which one is the best one for my job?' This paper examines a model for tracking stations and their requirements for interprocessor communications in the next century. The model and requirements are matched with the model and services provided by the five different software architectures and supporting protocol solutions. Several key services are examined in detail to determine which services and protocols most closely match the requirements for the tracking station environment. The study reveals that the protocols are tailored to the problem domains for which they were originally designed. Further, the study reveals that the process control model is the closest match to the tracking station model.

Heuser, William Randy↗
NASA NTRS1994

Open Solutions to Distributed Control in Ground Tracking Stations

The advent of high speed local area networks has made it possible to interconnect small, powerful computers to function together as a single large computer...This paper examines a model for tracking stations and their requirements for inter-processor communications in the next century.

lan↗
NASA NTRS1971

Selection of a Space Station navigation system

NASA space station navigation system, considering landmark and ground tracking, ground beacons and satellite concepts, long term effects, operational requirements and design goals

Gentile, F. M.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Use of known landmarks for satellite navigation

The use of known landmark measurements along with an onboard attitude reference system for estimation of both the ephemeris and attitude of an earth orbiting satellite is discussed. Simulation results are presented which show that, although known landmarks alone do not provide sufficient information to bound the uncertainty in attitude and ephemeris, they are useful in combination with other navigation aids, such as star tracking, ground tracking, or satellite tracking. An extended Kalman filter is used for optimal estimation. The result of using a smoothing algorithm is also shown.

White, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Ground-Based Lidar Measurements During the CALIPSO and Twilight Zone (CATZ) Campaign

The CALIPSO and Twilight Zone (CATZ) field campaign was carried out between June 26th and August 29th of 2007 in the multi-state Maryland-Virginia-Pennsylvania region of the U.S. to study aerosol properties and cloud-aerosol interactions during overpasses of the CALIPSO satellite. Field work was conducted on selected days when CALIPSO ground tracks occurred in the region. Ground-based measurements included data from multiple Cimel sunphotometers that were placed at intervals along a segment of the CALIPSO ground-track. These measurements provided sky radiance and AOD measurements to enable joints inversions and comparisons with CALIPSO retrievals. As part of this activity, four ground-based lidars provided backscatter measurements (at 523 nm) in the region. Lidars at University of Maryland Baltimore County (Catonsville, MD) and Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD) provided continuous data during the campaign, while two micro-pulse lidar (MPL) systems were temporarily stationed at various field locations directly on CALIPSO ground-tracks. As a result, thirteen on-track ground-based lidar observations were obtained from eight different locations in the region. In some cases, nighttime CALIPSO coincident measurements were also obtained. In most studies reported to date, ground-based lidar validation efforts for CALIPSO rely on systems that are at fixed locations some distance away from the satellite ground-track. The CATZ ground-based lidar data provide an opportunity to examine vertical structure properties of aerosols and clouds both on and off-track simultaneously during a CALIPSO overpass. A table of available ground-based lidar measurements during this campaign will be presented, along with example backscatter imagery for a number of coincident cases with CALIPSO. Results indicate that even for a ground-based measurements directly on-track, comparisons can still pose a challenge due to the differing spatio-temporal properties of the ground and satellite observations. The multiple-lidar data during the CATZ campaign is expected to provide additional information on regional aerosol and cloud dynamics for give overpass, and enable a more realistic assessment of ground-to-satellite correlations. Future work is anticipated to finalize calibrated lidar backscatter profiles and utilization of wind trajectory information to further enable comparisons to CALIPS data.

Berkoff, Timothy↗
NASA NTRS1992

Sonic boom prediction for the Langley Mach 2 low-boom configuration

Sonic boom pressure signatures and aerodynamic force data for the Langley Mach 2 low sonic boom configuration were computed using the TranAir full-potential code. A solution-adaptive Cartesian grid scheme is utilized to compute off-body flow field data. Computations were performed with and without nacelles at several angles of attack. Force and moment data were computed to measure nacelle effects on the aerodynamic characteristics and sonic boom footprints of the model. Pressure signatures were computed both on and off ground-track. Near-field pressure signature computations on ground-track were in good agreement with experimental data. Computed off ground-track signatures showed that maximum pressure peaks were located off ground-track and were significantly higher than the signatures on ground-track. Bow shocks from the nacelle inlets increased lift and drag, and also increased the magnitude of the maximum pressure both on and off ground-track.

Madson, Michael D.↗
NASA NTRS1998

GLAS Spacecraft Pointing Study

Science requirements for the GLAS mission demand that the laser altimeter be pointed to within 50 m of the location of the previous repeat ground track. The satellite will be flown in a repeat orbit of 182 days. Operationally, the required pointing information will be determined on the ground using the nominal ground track, to which pointing is desired, and the current propagated orbit of the satellite as inputs to the roll computation algorithm developed by CCAR. The roll profile will be used to generate a set of fit coefficients which can be uploaded on a daily basis and used by the on-board attitude control system. In addition, an algorithm has been developed for computation of the associated command quaternions which will be necessary when pointing at targets of opportunity. It may be desirable in the future to perform the roll calculation in an autonomous real-time mode on-board the spacecraft. GPS can provide near real-time tracking of the satellite, and the nominal ground track can be stored in the on-board computer. It will be necessary to choose the spacing of this nominal ground track to meet storage requirements in the on-board environment. Several methods for generating the roll profile from a sparse reference ground track are presented.

Born, George H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Spacecraft preliminary orbit determination using tracking measurements obtained from the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) and the Ground Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (GSTDN)

In order to validate the operational and computational capabilities of the Preliminary Orbit Determination System (PODS), tests were performed using tracking measurements for several systems including the ERB satellite, the SMM, the STS and Landsat-4. POD procedures are utilized to generate a state vector following an unplanned orbital perturbation or spacecraft maneuver, when an estimation process such as a differential correction orbit determination cannot obtain a solution. Results are presented to demonstrate POD for several situations involving different qualities of a priori target state vectors, data type combinations, data arc lengths, and mixtures of single-TDRS, dual-TDRS, and GSTDN measurements. The system's ability to determine accurately the state vector for the spacecraft and the effectiveness of the solution screening process are discussed. It is shown that PODS is capable of determining a spacecraft vector when differential correction orbit determination processes fail.

Kirschner, S. M.↗