Patent ID: 7877173
Filing Date: 2011-01-25
Classification: B64G,G01S

Abstract:
1. A method of determining the attitude of a first satellite, comprising the steps of: receiving a crosslink signal from a second satellite; computing a measured vector {circumflex over (r)} computing a predicted vector {tilde over (r)} computing crosslink measurement residuals Δr as a difference between the computed predicted vector between the first satellite and the second satellite and the computed measured vector between the first satellite and the second satellite {circumflex over (r)} computing estimated attitude errors from a current estimated attitude, the crosslink measurement residuals, and position sensor measurement residuals, wherein the position sensor measurement residuals are computed from the current estimated attitude the attitude position sensor error parameters and the crosslink measurement residuals Δr; and correcting and propagating the current estimated satellite attitude using the computed estimated attitude errors.