New Ground and Space-Based GPS Tracking Techniques for High-Earth and Deep Space Orbit Determination Applications

Stephen M. Lichten, Dennis Sweeney, Larry Young, Bruce Haines, Don Spitzmesser, Jeffrey M. Srinivasan, Charles E. Dunn and Sumita Nandi

Abstract:	Satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS) can be used to provide precise position and velocity information for receivers on the surface of the Earth, in aircraft, or in low-Earth orbit. At altitudes above 5000 km, however, relatively few GPS satellites are visible. Yet GPS can still help provide a precise navigation and positioning capability, even for Earth orbiters at altitudes well above the altitude of the downward broadcasting GPS satellites. In fact, GPS data can even play an important calibration role in interplanetary spacecraft navigation. This paper discusses error analysis and field tests for use of GPS technology to provide orbit determination for satellites at altitudes of 40000- 100000 km. An experiment being carried out by JPL in late 1993 and early 1994 will demonstrate how GPS-like tracking can help provide an operational orbit determination capability for geosynchronous satellites, such as TDRS. The field experiment for TDRS tracking utilizes 3 TurboRogue GPS ground receivers in a small (few-hundred km), local network. These receivers are capable of tracking carrier phase from TDRS as well as carrier phase and pseudorange from GPS satellites. This new approach offers a low-cost alternative to conventional tracking systems for geosynchronous satellites. For the TDRS demo, no new space hardware was needed. The goal for TDRS is 50-m near-real time accuracy. For orbit accuracy at the few-meter level at altitudes up to 100000 km, a more global distribution of hybrid GPS receivers is needed for tracking the high-Earth orbiter and the GPS satellites simultaneously, although only a relatively small number of these special receivers is required. Initial analysis of system performance indicates meter-level performance should be possible. New deep space tracking applications of the Global Positioning System will also be discussed in this paper. They are essentially a variation on the high-Earth orbiter tracking technique using a ground GPS receiver which can track both GPS and non-GPS spacecraft. GPS ground receivers collocated with the deep space tracking antennas and referenced to the same oscillator can provide precise, continuous and timely calibrations for geodetic, atmospheric, and clock parameters which are critical to interplanetary navigation. The incorporation of GPS into NASA’s Deep Space Network offers a number of significant performance, operational and economical advantages over systems currently in use to provide these calibration products.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1994 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 24 - 26, 1994 Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	371 - 380
Cite this article:	Lichten, Stephen M., Sweeney, Dennis, Young, Larry, Haines, Bruce, Spitzmesser, Don, Srinivasan, Jeffrey M., Dunn, Charles E., Nandi, Sumita, "New Ground and Space-Based GPS Tracking Techniques for High-Earth and Deep Space Orbit Determination Applications," Proceedings of the 1994 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 1994, pp. 371-380.
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