Differential Carrier Phase GPS Techniques for Space Vehicle Rendezvous

Kurt Zimmerman and Robert Cannon Jr.

Abstract:	The objective of this research effort is to demon- strate that Differential Carrier Phase GPS techniques can be employed as the primary means of sensing both the relative position and the relative attitude of two space vehicles for precise, autonomous ren- dezvous maneuvers in Low Earth Orbit. In pursuit of this goal, an experimental system that can be tested in a well-controlled indoor laboratory environment has been built. Ideally, this system will be trans- ferable to a real space system with little or no mod- ification. Since the experiments take place indoors where GPS satellite signals cannot be received, sev- eral GPS pseudolite transmitters have been built and installed around the laboratory to provide the neces- sary GPS signals. The indoor GPS environment cre- ated by the close-range pseudolite transmitters poses some additional constraints on the algorithms used to extract relative position and relative attitude from the carrier phase measurements. Therefore, a sec- ondary objective of this research is to clarify the differences between an indoor GPS system and the orbiting GPS satellite constellation, and to extend Differential Carrier Phase techniques such that they can be applied to near-field (indoor) systems as well as far-field (outdoor and space) systems. This pa- per presents the theoretical formulation and results of a two-dimensional position control experiment, an intermediate step toward the full rendezvous experi- ment.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 7th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1994) September 20 - 23, 1994 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	1693 - 1700
Cite this article:	Zimmerman, Kurt, Cannon, Robert, Jr., "Differential Carrier Phase GPS Techniques for Space Vehicle Rendezvous," Proceedings of the 7th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1994), Salt Lake City, UT, September 1994, pp. 1693-1700.
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