An autonomous navigation study of Walker constellation based on reference satellite and inter-satellite distance measurement

The autonomous navigation which can make the constellation more autonomy and reliability is an important topic of research with widely application. In this paper, we introduce an autonomous navigation system based on Walker constellation. The visibility of satellites is analyzed by Satellite Tool Kit (STK) and then basic conditions to establish the stable Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) are provided. Reference satellite and inter-satellite distance measurement are introduced for autonomous navigation that reveals the navigation accuracy related to reference satellitmples test the system accuracy and some valuable conclusions of reference satellite selection are given.