Satellite Formation Flight Via NRM and EKF State Estimation Method

This chapter is devoted to the analysis of relative satellite vector estimations with extended Kalman filter (EKF) using the target and follower satellite positioning approach obtained by the Newton-Raphson method (NRM). In this study, target and follower satellite baseline values were determined as derived simulation data. Position states due to Earth-centered inertial (ECI) reference frame were obtained by Keplerian orbital parameters and Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. The Pseudo-ranging model was used to determining the position of target and follower satellites. To simulate GPS receiver, random measurement errors were added to the actual distance between the target and follower satellites. With this study, satellite relative state vectors are obtained within the analysis scenario.