Relative navigation for satellite formation flight using a continuous-discrete converted measurement Kalman filter

The present paper develops an approach of relative orbit determination for satellite formation flight. Inter-satellite measurements by the onboard devices of the satellite were chosen to perform this relative navigation, and the equations of relative motion expressed in the Earth Centered Inertial frame were used to eliminate the assumption of the circular reference orbit. The relative orbit estimation was achieved through a continuous-discrete converted measurement Kalman filter design, in which the measurements were transformed to the inertial frame to avoid the linearization error of the observation equation. In addition, the situation of the coarse measurement period (only microwave radar measurements are available) existing was analyzed. The numerical simulation results verify the validity of the navigation approach, and it has been proved that this approach can be applied to the formation with an elliptical reference orbit.