Positioning with Autonomous Formation Flyer (AFF) on Space-Technology 3

Sien-Chong Wu and Da Kuang

Abstract:	The NASA’s Space Technology 3 mission (ST-3) will demonstrate, among others, the newly developed Autonomous Formation Flyer (AFF) technology. The multiple receiving antennas on each of the two spacecraft are capable of acquiring precise pseudorange and carrier phase signals transmitted by the other spacecraft., from which precise inter-spacecraft distance and bearing angles can be derived. A simulation/covariance analysis indicates that the inter-spacecraft distance can be determined to better than 5 mm and the bearing angles to better than 1 arc-minute. The differential phase ambiguities (between antennas on the same receiving spacecraft) can potentially be resolved after measurements over a few epochs have been accumulated. With such ambiguity-free differential phases, the spacecraft bearing angles can be determined to a far better accuracy of 2 arc-seconds.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1999) September 14 - 17, 1999 Nashville, TN
Pages:	385 - 392
Cite this article:	Wu, Sien-Chong, Kuang, Da, "Positioning with Autonomous Formation Flyer (AFF) on Space-Technology 3," Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1999), Nashville, TN, September 1999, pp. 385-392.
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