A Universe Light House — Candidate Architectures of the Libration Point Satellite Navigation System

Abstract

In view of the shortcomings of existing satellite navigation systems in deep-space performance, candidate architectures which utilise libration point orbits in the Earth-Moon system are proposed to create an autonomous satellite navigation system for lunar missions. Three candidate constellations are systematically studied in order to achieve continuous global coverage for lunar orbits: the Earth-Moon L1,2 two-satellite constellation, the Earth-Moon L2,4,5 three-satellite constellation and the Earth-Moon L1,2,4,5 four-satellite constellation. After a thorough search for possible configurations, the latter two constellations are found to be the simplest feasible architectures for lunar navigation. Finally, an autonomous orbit determination simulation is performed to verify the autonomy of the system and two optimal configurations are obtained in a comprehensive consideration of coverage and autonomous orbit determination performance.