LEO Satellite Navigation Based on Optical Measurements of a Cooperative Constellation

Autonomous, anti-jamming, and high-precision satellite navigation are of great importance to current future space technologies. This paper proposes a cooperative constellation system for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that use only the optical measurements satellites. Based on photometry, an transmission link model is built. With pixel coordinates images, line sight (LoS) vectors with respect LEO spacecraft first calculated, single-point positioning method based LoS vectors’ inner products proposed. The results then fed into least square batch filter estimate orbit. Simulations conducted evaluate potential accuracy. ephemeris error 100 m measurement noise level 5 arcsecs, position accuracies dynamic determination in order hundreds meters eight meters, respectively, realized. In addition, influences orbital altitude constellation, satellite, measurements, Earth’s gravitational accuracy investigated via comparative simulations.