Performance predictions for high altitude self-contained satellite navigation systems

This paper summarizes a study of self-contained navigation system accuracies for high altitude orbital missions projected through 1985. It is found that root-sum-square (RSS) satellite position errors as low as a few hundred feet are obtainable with range measuring systems. Totally autonomous, nonradiating systems are operationally more attractive, and some promising candidates in this category give RSS position errors from about one-half to a few miles, depending on the orbit. The extended Kalman filter and extensive Monte Carlo simulations are used as the basic analysis tools. Favorable comparisons between covariance analysis and Monte Carlo results are reported. Time-average statistics are also found to provide useful figures of merit.