Astronavigation System as an Autonomous Enhancement Suite for a Strapdown Inertial Navigation System: An Evaluation

The determination of spacecraft coordinates is embodied by a navigation solution with high degree of autonomy, high precision and reliability. The foremost requirement for the solution of this problem is a strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS), which is autonomous, reliable and jamming resistant, but at the same time, errors in SINS increase with time. Therefore, for the SINS error correction, astronavigation system (ANS) is used as an additional navaid. This paper considers the ANS as an enhancement source for the SINS and presents its theoretical and practical aspects. The typical ANS makes use of star-trackers which are expensive, complicated in their structure and demand a-priori definition and vigilant preparation of each onboard attitude fix. To make this system cost effective and simple, an advanced configuration employs a charge coupled device (CCD) based star sensor rigidly mounted on a strapdown inertial measurement unit (SIMU). Consequently, in this evaluation, the ANS makes use of CCD based star sensors. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the validity of the method for improving the navigation reliability and performance.