Accession Number:

AD0601856

Title:

ORBIT DETERMINATION BY ANGULAR MEASUREMENTS

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

AEROSPACE CORP EL SEGUNDO CA

Personal Author(s):

• Bell, P. O.

Report Date:

1964-01-29

Pagination or Media Count:

26.0

Abstract:

From a tracking station of known geocentric location, the measurements of the azimuth and elevation of a satellite at three instants of time provided tracking data sufficient for a preliminary determination of the orbit of the satellite about the earth. From such data, the components in a geocentered inertial coordinate system of the position vectors of the satellite may be calculated and in terms of these components, all of the orbital elements may be expressed. In view of the given positional data of the tracking station and the directional data of the satellites position, only the slant ranges are needed to complete the determination of the vectors. To solve for the slant ranges, an iterative procedure was introduced whereby successive systems of linear equations are solved. Subsequently, all of the orbital elements were easily computed.

Descriptors:

• *ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES
• *CELESTIAL MECHANICS
• AZIMUTH
• COMPUTERS
• EQUATIONS
• MEASUREMENT
• ORBITS
• TRACKING
• VECTOR ANALYSIS

Subject Categories:

• Unmanned Spacecraft

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE