Satellite Geometry and Attitude Mode of BDS-3 MEO Satellites Developed by SECM

Xia Lin, Lin Baojun, Liu Yingchun, Xiong Sujie, and Bai Tao

Abstract:	The Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites (SECM) is a rather new satellite manufacturer founded in 2004, which is also the first innovation research institute established by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). With the successful launch experience of two BDS-3 technical test satellites during the last few years, SECM has gained 8 MEO satellites manufacturing contracts of BDS-3. Among the 8 satellites, the first couple of satellites (PIN Code: CA26 and CA 27) have been successfully launched in January 12, 2018. The orbit phase acquisition of the two satellites has been completed a few days ago, and the global navigation signal service will be formally committed when the navigation payload onboard tests are finished. And the remaining 6 MEO satellites of SECM plan to be launched in 2018. Compared with the BDS-2 or BDS-3 MEO satellites developed by China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), the developer of BDS-2 satellites and the other BDS-3 satellites, the SECM's BDS-3 MEO satellites have a completely different geometric configuration. The satellite surface pointing to the earth is a rectangle, not a square. Navigation antenna arrays, laser corner reflectors, communication antennas of satellite to earth and inter-satellite link antennas are properly installed. The star sensors and fiber optic gyroscopes are also installed on the satellite so that the satellite attitude control is very accurate. This paper describes the satellite information to those researchers of the Precise Orbit Determine (POD) for navigation satellites, which includes the geometric parameters of the satellite body and solar panels, the specification of installation position of navigation antennas along with definitions of the spacecraft body frames, and the antenna phase center offsets and variations. To facilitate the satellite laser ranging measurements, the laser retro-reflector array coordinates consistent with the spacecraft frame are provided. Furthermore, this paper briefly introduces the mode of satellite attitude control for the convenient use of navigation signals of SECM’s MEO satellites.
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:	1268 - 1289
Cite this article:	Lin, Xia, Baojun, Lin, Yingchun, Liu, Sujie, Xiong, Tao, Bai, "Satellite Geometry and Attitude Mode of BDS-3 MEO Satellites Developed by SECM," Proceedings of the 31st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2018), Miami, Florida, September 2018, pp. 1268-1289. https://doi.org/10.33012/2018.16118
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