ERROR ANALYSIS CONSIDERATIONS FOR A SATELLITE RENDEZVOUS,

The necessity for the achievement of a close satellite rendezvous tactic devolves from a variety of military and space technology requirements. The over-all idea of a rendezvous involves a target and a rendezvous vehicle the necessity to track the target and compute its ephemeris a scheme of space kinematics and a means of implementing this scheme via launching and guidance. A completely passive target is presumed. The target must be ground tracked to maintain an up-to-date ephemeris, necessary for exact rendezvous vehicle launch timing and for determination of launch trajectory parameters which will place the rendezvous vehicle in a favorable position for the terminal or homing phase. In considering the magnitude of the possible tracking errors it is noted that, for a passive satellite, skin tracking is mandatory. In view of radar errors it is seen that the accuracy of prediction decreases with prediction time span. A multiple source of radar data can result in major error suppression.