Final Presentation of NAVISP Project EL1-024 now available: Successful Study conducted on establishing accurate inter-satellite relative positioning paves the way for new science missions

Last Updated: 16/12/2021 09:34     Created at: 16/12/2021 09:34

On Tuesday, December 14, 2021, GMV Innovating Solutions Ltd, together with Radboud University, presented the results of the NAVISP project “Precise Relative Positioning in MEO to Support Science Missions”. About 50 people from industry and research followed the interesting presentation and the subsequent interactive Q&A session.

In recent years, it became apparent that precise relative positioning of satellites in Earth's Medium Orbit (MEO) can open up opportunities in the field of Science, Earth observation or lunar exploration, including the positioning of spacecraft in lunar orbits.

As part of NAVISP Element 1, which aims to develop innovative concepts, techniques, technologies, and systems related to the PNT sector along the entire value chain, the activities’ main objective was to study the critical technologies required to achieve precise relative position in MEO to support such Science applications, in this case in the observation of the black holes, like the one in Sagittarius A*.

Within the scope of the project, GMV has succeeded in developing a prototype real-time filter that processes GNSS and optical inter-satellite link (ISL) observations over large distances and provides good relative satellites' position accuracies. In addition, a post processing approach was proposed that corresponds to the current state of the art in post-processing GNSS Precise Orbit Determination and made it possible to limit the positioning errors in the inter-satellites and Sagittarius A* directions to less than 7 mm. After the study execution, the preliminary results of the project have been used to support the research efforts of Radboud University Nijmegen in the study of the supermassive Sagittarius A* black hole.

Having reached the study maturity stage with the support of NAVISP, GMV is now in a position to take the next step looking for a technology demonstration mission to assess the system performance using real data collected in the target orbit.

More detailed information can be found in the slides of the Final Presentation:

- EL1 024 Introduction Slides ESA
- EL1 024 Presentation GMV
- Radboud University: Event Horizon Imager
- Radboud University: Multi-Wavelength Study