Sun-Earth-Moon autonomous orbit determination for quasi-periodic orbit about the translunar libration point and its observability analysis

In this paper, the Sun-Earth-Moon (i.e., SEM) autonomous navigation problem is investigated for the Lissajous orbit and the quasi-halo orbit about the translunar libration point. Generally, the SEM navigation method can offer a convergent estimation by using orientation information. However, due to the unstable nature of the translunar libration orbit, it is still indispensable to further prove that only orientation information can guarantee the convergence. Therefore, three sensor configurations are studied to find an appropriate sensor configuration for translunar libration probe. In order to achieve this goal, a new navigation dynamic model with standard ephemerides is proposed. The observability analysis is used to evaluate the feasibility of each sensor configuration. Autonomous navigation is obtained by extended Kalman filtering. Simulations show that the sensor configuration of using orientation information from the spacecraft to the Sun, the Earth and the Moon and one Doppler measurement can satisfy both the economical efficiency and reliability. (C) 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.