Results on use of GNSS for High Altitude Orbital Missions

Mariano Wis, Enrique Santiago, Antonio Fernández, Pedro F. Silva, Ricardo Prata, Rui Nunes, José Antonio García Molina

Abstract:	It is already known the challenge that represents the processing of GNSS in orbital conditions, overall when the trajectory drives the receiver to positions that are beyond the GNSS orbit altitude. It is necessary to deal with relative GNSS SV receiver dynamics that are very extreme and with conditions of very low power signal (below 20 dB-Hz) and poor satellite geometry. Project HEOP (a joint project between Elecnor Deimos and RUAG coordinated by ESA-ESTEC) analyzed this issue working on two approaches. First approach consisted of performing a Space Service Volume (SSV) simulation [1] for the analysis of the system performance that GNSS system would have in locations beyond the Geostationary orbit (GSO). The second approach performed a fully realistic simulation using a GNSS receiver implemented on a Digital Signal Processing Test Bench (DSPTB) where, correlators and acquisition, tracking loops and navigation filter algorithms follow a representative implementation of the real receiver aimed for working under orbital conditions. Two very different receiver approaches were selected for comparison: the first based on a more traditional approach based on the AGGA4 GNSS space receiver chipset [2] and second based on the Double-Block Zero Padded Transition insensitive (DBZPTI) algorithm [3]. This paper performs an overview of the tools implemented, summarizes results provided in past papers ([4] and [5]), and provides the final results obtained for the SSVAT and the DSPTB in the model orbit selected for the simulations (based on PROBA-3[6] HEO mission) in perigee, GNSS altitude and apogee orbital phases. Finally, we present the potential use of the AGGA4 evaluation kit as a follow-up activity to demonstrate ultimate practical feasibility of the presented techniques. The evaluation kit, under commercialization by Cobham Gaisler includes an actual AGGA4 GNSS space receiver chipset for which supporting firmware has already been developed as enabler of fast prototyping of innovative GNSS algorithms.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 31st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2018) September 24 - 28, 2018 Hyatt Regency Miami Miami, Florida
Pages:	1710 - 1721
Cite this article:	Wis, Mariano, Santiago, Enrique, Fernández, Antonio, Silva, Pedro F., Prata, Ricardo, Nunes, Rui, Molina, José Antonio García, "Results on use of GNSS for High Altitude Orbital Missions," Proceedings of the 31st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2018), Miami, Florida, September 2018, pp. 1710-1721. https://doi.org/10.33012/2018.15897
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