In-Orbit System Analysis of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Mission

Precise determination and control of satellite attitude plays a key role for satellite geodesy in general, and for Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking in particular. The project provided the first in-depth characterization of GRACE pointing biases and pointing variations. Investigations addressed star camera inter-boresight angle variations, the weighted camera sensor head combination, as well as error propagation to inter-satellite ranging and accelerometer observations. Results led to significant improvements in the operational GRACE data processing.

References

Bandikova et al (2012) Characteristics and accuracies of the GRACE inter-satellite pointing. Adv Space Res, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2012.03.011

Bandikova and Flury (2014) Improvement of the GRACE star camera data based on the revision of the combination method. Adv Space Res, doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2014.07.004

Bandikova (2015) The role of attitude determination for inter-satellite ranging. PhD thesis, DGK C758