Abstract:
With the development of domestic commercial spaceflight and the increasing number of space debris monitoring equipment, how to make full use of the observed data from commercial spaceflight has become an important subject worthy of further study. Initial orbit determination of space targets is not only an important basis for space mission planning and space situational awareness, but also a prerequisite for key technologies such as satellite operations, collision warning, orbit maintenance,
etc. This study uses data obtained from the Yangwang-1 space-based observatory system and the Zhulong ground-based observatory network developed by China’s commercial spaceflight companies to conduct Initial Orbit Determination (IOD) for Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) targets and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) targets, respectively. The Yangwang-1 satellite carries advanced electro-optical sensors that enable long duration, high precision continuous observations of GEO targets, while the Zhulong ground-based observation network consists of multiple electro-optical telescopes distributed at various locations across the country, capable of short arc, high frequency observations of LEO targets. In this study, we used the method of initial orbit determination based on optical goniometry observations, using the range searching method and iterative improvement strategy to estimate the initial orbits of GEO and LEO targets, and used Two-Line Element (TLE) data as a benchmark to evaluate the error of the calculated results. Experimental results show that for GEO targets, the observed arc length is about 249 s, the semi-major axis error determined by the initial orbit is 84.4 km, and the inclination error is 0.40°; For LEO targets, the observed arc is about 40 s, the semi-major axis error of the initial orbit is 26.0 km, and the inclination error is 0.13°. The results show that the method of initial orbit determination adopted in this study is feasible in the data processing of commercial spaceflight observations, and the great potential of space-based electro-optical monitoring equipment in the field of orbit determination is verified.