18 January 2019

PrOBOarD-Program for On-Board Orbit Determination

In the near future, the development of mega-constellations of satellites, in low orbit, is expected for a variety of purposes, such as the global availability of broadband internet and the improvement of telecommunications and localization services on Earth. A mega-constellation will imply the management of hundreds of satellites that, in low orbit, will move very quickly and will be checked frequently. While mass production will reduce the cost of hardware for satellites, the complexity of the system will increase management costs. It will therefore be desirable for an automation system to reduce costs for ground activities and the corresponding workforce.

Credit:OneWeb

Considering the high availability of the GNSS signal (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou) in the LEO region, the aim of the PrOBOarD project is to develop an electronic device, based on a commercial hardware, which makes possible the independent and real time precision orbital determination on on-board satellites equipped with GNSS receiver, based on a low-dynamic filter. This will also make it possible to facilitate on-board processing of data from various scientific experiments for the study of the Earth, such as GNSS-RO and GNSS-R, and it will be the first step towards possible further Guidance Navigation and Control skills.