| 20110196550 | Method and apparatus for initial orbit determination using high-precision orbit propagation and maneuver modeling - A method of determining an orbit of an orbital object includes computing predicted tracking measurement values based on the orbit computed from the initial conditions factoring in any modeled environmental forces and realistic maneuvers; computing the differences between the actual and predicted tracking measurements; determining an improved estimate of the initial conditions that reduces the measurement errors using a minimization or root finding algorithm; after the algorithm has converged, reviewing the hypothetical maneuvers in the force model, taking each value and determining which values came up as near-zero in the minimized solutions and which values came up as those of measurable thrust; determining overall burn duration using the first and last burn times; determining the thrust profile of the orbital object over the observation period using the integrated thrust values; and determining the actual maneuver based on the observation data. | 08-11-2011 |
