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Review of the precise orbit determination for Chinese lunar exploration projects
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  • Shanhong Liu,
  • Jianguo Yan,
  • Jianfeng Cao,
  • Mao Ye,
  • Xie Li,
  • Fei Li,
  • Jean-Pierre Barriot
Shanhong Liu
Wuhan University
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Jianguo Yan
Wuhan University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Jianfeng Cao
Unknown
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Mao Ye
Wuhan University
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Xie Li
Unknown
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Fei Li
Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University
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Jean-Pierre Barriot
Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees
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Abstract

China’s lunar exploration missions have developed and progressed for more than 13 years. In these missions, Precise Orbit determination (POD) guarantees successful execution of Chang’e missions, and the basis for further scientific investigations using radio science data; for example, recovering the lunar gravity field to explore the inner structure and detect craters to study the evolutionary history of the moon. This paper briefly reviews the Chang’e series mission orbit and tracking measurements. We reprocessed the tracking data and comprehensively summarized the evolution in POD accuracy and the tracking system precision from the Chang’e 1 to Chang’e 4 missions. Our results show that the accuracy of Chang’e 5T1 Doppler measurements reach about 0.35 mm/s and the two-way range measurements 0.2 m, with respect to 1.1 mm/s and 1.6 m for Chang’e 1. The Chang’e 4 relay satellite achieved POD accuracy at the meter level, in contrast to the half-kilometer level accuracy achieved during the Chang’e 1 mission. We can clearly see that the POD performance and precision of the Chang’e spacecraft are continuously improving. This research is a reference for future Chinese Lunar missions, as well as Chinese Mars and asteroid explorations.
Apr 2021Published in Earth and Space Science volume 8 issue 4. 10.1029/2020EA001361