Analysis of Jet Transport-Based Geostationary Trajectory Uncertainty Propagation

A study reports the best options for how to use jet transport (JT) techniques to researchers with interests in accurate orbit determination, opening this way possibilities about the use of geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites to new applications. The questions considered include the comparisons between Taylor and Chebyshev expansions, the expansion-order analysis of the dominant perturbations in GEO regime, and the performance analysis of the JT-based orbit uncertainty propagation in different coordinate representations and expansion forms. The dominant perturbations considered in the precise GEO trajectory propagation include solar radiation pressure (SRP), Earth’s nonspherical gravity, and lunisolar gravitational attraction.