High Fidelity Satellite to Satellite Tracking toolkit (HFSST) for Navigation Mission Design

The HFSST “High Fidelity Satellite to Satellite Tracking toolkit” is a tool for space navigation mission analysis design. The inputs of the toolkit are the configurations of the mission. The outputs are the ranging data between different satellites for navigation, as well as the reports on the performance of the system. The content of these reports include the physical visibilities, the relative geometry as well as the measurement noise between satellites participating in a mission. Physical visibilities are evaluated based on the geometric relationship between the satellites and the celestial bodies, as well as the power level of the ranging signals. Which concern the attitude pointing of the satellites, the mounting positions, directions and patterns of antennas, the signal travel losses as well as the threshold of the receiver. The toolkit also includes orbital model, attitude model, and signal model as well as visualization module. These make it suitable to develop elaborated analysis of satellite navigation missions whether near Earth or deep into space. Example from an actual mission that a satellite on High Elliptical Orbit (HEO) tracks side lobe signals of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) for navigation is demonstrated to show the features and usages of the toolkit.