Determination of the attitude state of space debris objects based on Satellite Laser Ranging, using Envisat as a test case

Master thesis (2016)

Authors

Contributors

E.N. Doornbos (mentor)
Department
Astrodynamics and Space Missions (Aerospace Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2016 Lagaune, B.F.
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Published Date

21-12-2016

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Department

Astrodynamics and Space Missions

Abstract

The attitude state of the passive Envisat satellite (ESA) has been estimated before using various techniques like Satellite Laser Ranging, radar and using light-curves. This research focusses on the use of Satellite Laser Ranging. Due to the relatively large (meter scale) offset between the center-of-mass of the satellite and the reflector where the laser signal is reflected back to the transmitting and receiving ground station, large oscillations in the range residuals are visible. These oscillations show the rotating behaviour of Envisat, and can be translated to its rotational state by re-producing this signal using a corresponding attitudemodel and the offset between the reflector and the center-of-mass. First a purely theoretical case was considered where a known simulated orbit and attitude where estimated for various cases in order to validate the use of the estimation scheme. Afterwords, the real Satellite Laser Ranging data of Envisat was used for the time period 2013-2015.