Air Force Phillips Laboratory autonomous space navigation experiment
Abstract
The Air Force Phillips Laboratory's Technology for Autonomous Operational Survivability (TAOS) space experiment is scheduled for launch in early 1993. The mission will test and evaluate two navigation systems that support autonomous satellite navigation. They are the Microcosm Autonomous Navigation System (MANS) and the six-channel GPS receiver. MANS is a true autonomous system that uses horizon scanners, modified for sun and moon detection, as primary measurement devices to determine position, velocity, and attitude and estimate position and velocity using a Kalman filter. The Rockwell GPS miniature receiver is a semiautonomous system which accesses the GPS network to determine spacecraft position and velocity. Position and velocity reference data will be generated using direct measurements from Air Force Satellite Control Network tracking stations, orbit reconstruction based on on-board beaconry, and postprocessed GPS data and solutions. Attitude reference will be provided by an on-board inertial measurement unit.
- Publication:
-
AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Conference
- Pub Date:
- March 1992
- Bibcode:
- 1992aiaa.confR....A
- Keywords:
-
- Autonomous Navigation;
- Global Positioning System;
- Kalman Filters;
- Satellite Navigation Systems;
- Space Navigation;
- Circular Orbits;
- Military Technology;
- Technological Forecasting;
- Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command and Tracking