OPERATIONAL ASPECTS OF ORBIT DETERMINATION WITH GPS FOR SMALL SATELLITES WITH A SAR PAYLOAD.

Abstract

Scientific small satellite missions for remote sensing with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payloads or high accuracy optical sensors, pose very strict requirements on the accuracy of the reconstructed satellite positions, velocities and accelerations. Today usual GPS receivers can fulfill the accuracy requirements of this missions in most cases, but for low-cost-missions the decision for a appropriate satellite hardware has to take into account not only the reachable quality of data but also the costs. In this paper an analysis is carried out in order to assess which on board and ground equipment, which type of GPS data and processing methods are most appropriate to minimize mission costs and full satisfying mission payload requirements focusing the attention on a SAR payload.