Past and Future Passive Ranging Navigation

Roger Easton, Roy Anderson

Abstract:	This paper starts with a description of two navigation concepts that were proposed as general systems. One is the GE proposal to NASA by fellow author Anderson. Its satellite constellation is quite similar to that used by GPS. The second is the 621B proposal by the Air Force-Aerospace team. This concept envisioned four constellations of 24-hour repeating satellites. Each local constellation consisted of one geostationary satellite with three (or more) satellites in inclined, eccentric orbits displaced from the geostationary satellite in such a manner as to have near-circular ground tracks. This type of constellation is very different from those proposed for other navigation systems and from the one in operational use for GPS. The next subject covered is the TIMATION concept. In it are shown the navigation results obtained from a low altitude satellite and the 3 X 9 8-hr. orbit proposed for the Defense Navigation Satellite System. Both its constelation and satellite clocks are used in GPS. Azimuth-Elevation plots are shown for the present GPS constellation and possible means of improving the present GPS accuracies are presented.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1996 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 1996 Loews Santa Monica Hotel Santa Monica, CA
Pages:	689 - 698
Cite this article:	Easton, Roger, Anderson, Roy, "Past and Future Passive Ranging Navigation," Proceedings of the 1996 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Santa Monica, CA, January 1996, pp. 689-698.
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