Relative navigation method based on auxiliary circular orbit for medium and long range

Relative navigation for non-cooperative spacecraft is the critical technique for the on-orbit servicing mission, the research on which has theoretical value and engineering significance. A method of orbit determination based on the auxiliary circular orbit is proposed in this paper to address the observability problem of the medium- and long-range navigation under the assumption of the orbit model based on CW equation. A measurement pseudo-linearization method together with the least-squares method is proposed for the initial orbit determination algorithm. Then, the sufficient and necessary condition of the method is then proposed and analyzed. The validity of the method is proved by numerical simulation.