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SATS: Small, Automated Tracking System - - Elements of a Better System for Satellite Tracking and TelemetryJPL has been exploring applications of precise Global Positioning System (GPS) techniques to navigation and data communication for Earth orbiting spacecraft. GPS tracking can be exploited in several different ways, depending on the orbital altitude of the spacecraft of interest, to support orbit and trajectory determination. At low-Earth orbits below 3000 km, 'upwards-looking' GPS tracking analogous to ground-based GPS tracking can be used to provide real-time orbit determination for navigation. At Earth orbiting altitudes between 3000 km and 8000 km, visibility of GPS rapidly decreases and it becomes advantageous to add a nadir pointing antenna in order to continuously see enough GPS signals to navigate an orbiter. For orbits above 8000 km, JPL has developed the GPS-like tracking (GLT) technique which dispenses with the on-board GPS receiver in favor of a transmitting beacon whose phase is tracked, simultaneously with normal GPS signals, by a ground network of 'enhanced' GPS receivers. The systems referred to above all have the potential to provide inexpensive and autonomous navigation/orbit production and, in some cases, integrated data communication for a wide class of Earth orbiters and should be of interest to designers of NASA, military, and commercial space systems.
Document ID
20060038113
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Srinivasan, Jeffrey M.
Lichten, Stephen M.
Haines, Bruce J.
Young, Lawrence E.
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
November 8, 1994
Subject Category
Communications And Radar
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
GPS Global Positioning System navigation spacecraft orbits data communication

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