This study presents the generation and accuracy assessment of predicted orbital ephemeris based on satellite laser ranging (SLR) for geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites. Two GEO satellites are considered: GEO-Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT)-2B (GK-2B) for simulational validation and Compass-G1 for real-world quality assessment. SLR-based orbit determination (OD) is proactively performed to generate orbital ephemeris. The length and the gap of the predicted orbital ephemeris were set by considering the consolidated prediction format (CPF). The resultant predicted ephemeris of GK-2B is directly compared with a pre-specified true orbit to show 17.461 m and 23.978 m, in 3D root-mean-square (RMS) position error and maximum position error for one day, respectively. The predicted ephemeris of Compass-G1 is overlapped with the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) final orbit from the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) analysis center (AC) to yield 36.760 m in 3D RMS position differences. It is also compared with the CPF orbit from the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) to present 109.888 m in 3D RMS position differences. These results imply that SLR-based orbital ephemeris can be an alternative candidate for improving the accuracy of commonly used radar-based orbital ephemeris for GEO satellites.

This study presents the application of satellite laser ranging (SLR) to orbit determination (OD) of high-Earth-orbit (HEO) satellites. Two HEO satellites are considered: the Quasi-Zenith Satellite-1 (QZS-1), a Japanese elliptical-inclinedgeosynchronous- orbit (EIGSO) satellite, and the Compass-G1, a Chinese geostationary-orbit (GEO) satellite. One week of normal point (NP) data were collected for each satellite to perform the OD based on the batch least-square process. Five SLR tracking stations successfully obtained 374 NPs for QZS-1 in eight days, whereas only two ground tracking stations could track Compass-G1, yielding 68 NPs in ten days. Two types of station bias estimation and a station data weighting strategy were utilized for the OD of QZS-1. The post-fit root-mean-square (RMS) residuals of the two week-long arcs were 11.98 cm and 10.77 cm when estimating the biases once in an arc (MBIAS). These residuals were decreased significantly to 2.40 cm and 3.60 cm by estimating the biases every pass (PBIAS). Then, the resultant OD precision was evaluated by the orbit overlap method, yielding three-dimensional errors of 55.013 m with MBIAS and 1.962 m with PBIAS for the overlap period of six days. For the OD of Compass-G1, no station weighting strategy was applied, and only MBIAS was utilized due to the lack of NPs. The post-fit RMS residuals of OD were 8.81 cm and 12.00 cm with 49 NPs and 47 NPs, respectively, and the corresponding threedimensional orbit overlap error for four days was 160.564 m. These results indicate that the amount of SLR tracking data is critical for obtaining precise OD of HEO satellites using SLR because additional parameters, such as station bias, are available for estimation with sufficient tracking data. Furthermore, the stand-alone SLR-based orbit solution is consistently attainable for HEO satellites if a target satellite is continuously trackable for a specific period.

This study presents a precise relative navigation algorithm using both laser and Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements in real time. The measurement model of the navigation algorithm between two spacecraft is comprised of relative distances measured by laser instruments and single differences of GPS pseudo-range measurements in spherical coordinates. Based on the measurement model, the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is applied to smooth the pseudo-range measurements and to obtain the relative navigation solution. While the navigation algorithm using only laser measurements might become inaccurate because of the limited accuracy of spacecraft attitude estimation when the distance between spacecraft is rather large, the proposed approach is able to provide an accurate solution even in such cases by employing the smoothed GPS pseudo-range measurements. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the errors of the proposed algorithm are reduced by more than about 12% compared to those of an algorithm using only laser measurements, as the accuracy of angular measurements is greater than 0.001° at relative distances greater than 30 km.

This work presents fuel-optimal altitude maintenance of Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) spacecrafts experiencing non-negligible air drag and J2 perturbation. A pseudospectral (direct) method is first applied to roughly estimate an optimal fuel consumption strategy, which is employed as an initial guess to precisely determine itself. Based on the physical specifications of KOrea Multi-Purpose SATellite-2 (KOMPSAT-2), a Korean artificial satellite, numerical simulations show that a satellite ascends with full thrust at the early stage of the maneuver period and then descends with null thrust. While the thrust profile is presumably bang-off, it is difficult to precisely determine the switching time by using a pseudospectral method only. This is expected, since the optimal switching epoch does not coincide with one of the collocation points prescribed by the pseudospectral method, in general. As an attempt to precisely determine the switching time and the associated optimal thrust history, a shooting (indirect) method is then employed with the initial guess being obtained through the pseudospectral method. This hybrid process allows the determination of the optimal fuel consumption for LEO spacecrafts and their thrust profiles efficiently and precisely.