Date of Award:

8-2011

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

David K. Geller

Committee

David K. Geller

Committee

Don Cripps

Committee

Stephen A. Whitmore

Abstract

Tradition spacecraft proximity operations require large and expensive on-board sensors and significant ground support. Relative angle measurements can be obtained from small, simple, and inexpensive on-board sensors, but have not traditionally been used for proximity operation because of difficulty generating rang information. In this thesis it is shown that useful relative range data can be generated provided that the spacecraft is experiencing a small continuous thrust such as would be provided by a low-thrust propulsion system. In previous work range observability was shown with impulsive maneuvers. This thesis will expand this work to low-thrust spacecraft and will show how range can be observed under normal operating conditions. The low-thrust methods covered here may be particularly useful in higher orbits (such as GEO) where the gravity gradient is relatively small. A computer simulation is used to develop and test guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for such maneuvers. The capabilities and limitations of these techniques and algorithms are then analyzed.

Checksum

1eba995068e042d64634eb8470b27221

Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on September 1, 2011.

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .