This monograph reports on the development of the attitude determination backbone of the Ionospheric Observation Nanosatellite Formation (ION-F). Three spacecraft with similarly modest pointing constraints comprise the ION-F constellation. Pointing requirements for the constellation are dictated by the formation flying mission objective and communication demands. To satisfy pointing requirements...

Formation ying of multiple vehicles requires accurate information on the relative position and attitude between the vehicles. Carrier Phase Di erential GPS (CDGPS) can provide the necessary accuracy in position and attitude sensing to successfully carry out such missions. In missions with little to no visibility to the NAVSTAR constellation, CDGPS can still be used by augmenting the available s...

Formation flying is an enabling technology for many future space missions. This paper presents extensions to the equations of relative motion expressed in Keplerian orbital elements, including new initialization techniques for general formation configurations. A new linear time-varying form of the equations of relative motion is developed from Gauss’ Variational Equations and used in a model pr...

This article presents a unified synchronization framework with application to precision formation flying spacecraft. Central to the proposed innovation, in applying synchronization to both translational and rotational dynamics in the Lagrangian form, is the use of the distributed stability and performance analysis tool, called contraction analysis that yields exact nonlinear stability proofs. T...

The objective of this paper is to develop a robust and efficient approach for relative navigation and attitude estimation of spacecraft flying in formation. The approach developed here uses information from a new optical sensor that provides a line of sight vector from the master spacecraft to the secondary satellite. The overall system provides a novel, reliable, and autonomous relative naviga...

This article presents a unified synchronization framework with application to precision formation flying spacecraft. Central to the proposed innovation, in applying synchronization to both translational and rotational dynamics in the Lagrangian form, is the use of the distributed stability and performance analysis tool, called contraction analysis that yields exact nonlinear stability proofs. T...

In addition to absolute orbit determination information, many current and future space missions require onboard relative navigation solutions between multiple satellites. GNSS is ideal for satisfying such requirements because of its long-term stable accuracy and global availability. It is well known that of the various error sources in the GNSS observations, the ionospheric path delay is one of...