SATELLITE POSITION AND VELOCITY PERTURBATIONS DUE TO ERRORS AT INJECTION.
Abstract
The orbit of a near-earth satellite will, in general, be different from the reference orbit designed by the mission planners. The time varying differences or errors in position and velocity can usually be traced to random uncertainties in the booster guidance system. As a result, the in-orbit errors are statistical in nature and their prediction usually requires a complex computer study. The paper reports a simpler approach to the prediction of satellite position and velocity errors in-orbit. A set of analytic equations are developed which express a satellite's position and velocity errors as a function of time and initial errors. These equations permit an understanding of the dynamics of vehicle motion. They can be used to cross check more sophisticated computer studies. The approximate solutions permit easy study of satellites at various altitudes and error propagation through multiple orbits. The equations show that in a polar coordinate system a satellite exhibits oscillating vertical and cross plane position errors while the downrange position error grows as a linear function of time. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0657028
Entities
People
- Richard J. Schulte