Framework to Emulate Spacecraft Orbital Positioning Using GNSS Hardware in the Loop

David Forero; Segundo Esteban; Óscar Rodríguez-Polo

doi:10.3390/s23020885

Framework to Emulate Spacecraft Orbital Positioning Using GNSS Hardware in the Loop

Sensors (Basel). 2023 Jan 12;23(2):885. doi: 10.3390/s23020885.

Authors

David Forero¹, Segundo Esteban², Óscar Rodríguez-Polo¹

Affiliations

¹ Space Research Group, Polytechnic School, University of Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
² Department of Computer Architecture and Automatic Control, Faculty of Physic Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.

Abstract

The paper presents a framework to emulate spacecraft orbits using GNSS hardware in the loop that enables the evaluation of new orbital positioning algorithms. The framework software generates the spacecraft orbit and the GNSS signals, including the most common perturbations. These signals are modulated and transmitted by a software-defined radio and received by a commercial GPS receiver. The system is validated using a test orbit, where the GPS receiver accurately determines the spacecraft positions. Moreover, using raw data provided by the receiver, the spacecraft positions have also been determined by software for a low earth orbit, in which civil GPS receivers do not work.

Keywords: global navigation satellite system (GNSS); hardware in the loop (HIL); satellite orbital determination; satellite orbital simulation; software defined radio (SDR).

MeSH terms

Algorithms
Computers*
Software
Spacecraft*

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.