Initial Orbit Determination from Only Heading Measurements
This work introduces a new class of initial orbit determination problem for spacecraft navigation, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing hodograph concepts.
The paper tackles the problem of initial orbit determination using only heading measurements, which arises in spacecraft orbit estimation with visual odometry from optical cameras, and presents an iterative solution based on orbital hodograph parameters, demonstrating numerical results for a low lunar orbit example.
This work introduces the problem of initial orbit determination (IOD) from only heading measurements. Such a problem occurs in practice when estimating the orbit of a spacecraft using visual odometry measurements from an optical camera. After reviewing the problem geometry, a simple solution is developed in the form of an iterative scheme on the parameters describing the orbital hodograph. Numerical results are presented for an example spacecraft in low lunar orbit. The principal intent of this brief study is to communicate the existence of a new class of IOD problem to the community and to encourage the broader study of hodographs and heading-only IOD.