Research on Generalized Celestial Navigation Autonomous Positioning Method for Near-Space Vehicles

To address the high-precision autonomous navigation requirements of near-space vehicles and the technical limitations of traditional celestial navigation-where it can only determine attitude without a horizontal reference and cannot achieve high-precision autonomous positioningthis paper proposes a generalized celestial autonomous positioning method tailored for near-space vehicles. By simulating and modeling the visibility of typical Earth orbit artificial satellites, the study provides celestial autonomous positioning algorithms under different boundary conditions based on the number of observable satellites. The simulation models and algorithms were validated through ground-based star observation experiments. Results show that when the incident zenith angle is within 85°, LEO (low-Earth orbit) satellites have an equivalent magnitude better than 5th magnitude stars, which can be detected by star sensor. Within approximately 10 seconds of continuous tracking of Starlink satellites, the algorithm can achieve autonomous positioning. High-precision navigation and positioning can be realized when the ephemeris accuracy is guaranteed.