Analysis of Autonomous Orbit Determination in Various Near-Moon Periodic Orbits

A robust yet affordable autonomous orbit determination system must be in place as the traffic of spacecraft in cislunar space increases. The methods of autonomous orbit determination analyzed in this paper are the use of Global Navigation Satellite System signals and horizon-based optical navigation with the Moon. This paper details a simulation of cislunar space with various non-Keplerian orbits around the Moon, including L1/L2 Halo orbit families, Distant Retrograde Orbits, and Butterfly Orbits. The orbit determination algorithm uses an Extended Kalman Filter and Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to characterize the performance of the algorithm in different orbits and with different measurement types. Results from this paper emphasize the importance of considering the orbit’s geometry for optical navigation-only measurements, although combining the two measurements significantly relieves this limitation in most types of near-Moon orbits with smaller root-mean-square errors of position and clock bias/drift estimates.