Relative Position and Attitude Control for Drag-Free Satellite with Prescribed Performance and Actuator Saturation

An adaptive prescribed performance control scheme is proposed for the drag free satellite in the presence of actuator saturation and external disturbances.The relative translation and rotation dynamics between the test mass and outer satellite are firstly derived.To guarantee prescribed performance bounds on the transient and steady control errors of relative states,a performance constrained control law is formulated with an error transformed function.In addition,the requirements to know the system parameters and the upper bound of the external disturbance in advance have been eliminated by adaptive updating technique.A command filter is concurrently used to overcome the problem of explosion of complexity inherent in the backstepping control design.Subsequently,a novel auxiliary system is constructed to compensate the adverse effects of the actuator saturation constrains.It is proved that all signals in the closed?loop system are ultimately bounded and prescribed performance of relative position and attitude control errors are guaranteed.Finally,numerical simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Micro-Newton scale variable thrust control technique and its noise problem for drag-free satellite platforms:a review

High-precision detection in fundamental space physics,such as space gravitational wave detection,high-precision earth gravity field measurement,and reference frame drag effect measurement,is the key to achieving important breakthroughs in the scientific study of fundamental space physics.Acquiring high-precision measurements requires high-performance satellite platforms to achieve“drag-free control”in a near“pure gravity”flight environment.The critical technology for drag-free control is variable thrust control at the micro-Newton scale.Thrust noise is the most important technical indicator for achieving drag-free flight.However,there is no literature about the current status and future prospects of variable thrust control based on thrust noise.Therefore,the micro-Newton variable thrust control technology and the thrust noise of the drag-free satellite platform are reviewed in this work.Firstly,the research status of micro-Newton scale variable thrust control technology and its applications to drag-free satellite platforms are introduced.Then,the noise problem is analyzed in detail and its solution is theoretically investigated in three aspects:“cross-basin flow problem,”“control problem,”and“system instability and multiple-coupled problem.”Finally,a systematic overview is presented and the corresponding suggested directions of research are discussed.This work provides detailed understanding and support for realizing low-noise variable thrust control in the next generation of drag-free satellites.

Orbital reference frame estimation with power spectral density constraints for drag-free satellites

The drag-free satellites are widely used in the field of fundamental science as they enable the high-precision measurement in pure gravity fields. This paper investigates the estimation of local orbital reference frame(LORF) for drag-free satellites. An approach, taking account of the combination of the minimum estimation error and power spectral density(PSD) constraint in frequency domain, is proposed. Firstly, the relationship between eigenvalues of estimator and transfer function is built to analyze the suppression and amplification effect on input signals and obtain the eigenvalue range. Secondly, an optimization model for state estimator design with minimum estimation error in time domain and PSD constraint in frequency domain is established. It is solved by the sequential quadratic programming(SQP) algorithm. Finally, the orbital reference frame estimation of low-earth-orbit satellite is taken as an example, and the estimator of minimum variance with PSD constraint is designed and analyzed using the method proposed in this paper.

Cooperative User-Scheduling and Resource Allocation Optimization for Intelligent Reflecting Surface Enhanced LEO Satellite Communication

Lower Earth Orbit(LEO) satellite becomes an important part of complementing terrestrial communication due to its lower orbital altitude and smaller propagation delay than Geostationary satellite. However, the LEO satellite communication system cannot meet the requirements of users when the satellite-terrestrial link is blocked by obstacles. To solve this problem, we introduce Intelligent reflect surface(IRS) for improving the achievable rate of terrestrial users in LEO satellite communication. We investigated joint IRS scheduling, user scheduling, power and bandwidth allocation(JIRPB) optimization algorithm for improving LEO satellite system throughput.The optimization problem of joint user scheduling and resource allocation is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem. To cope with this problem, the nonconvex optimization problem is divided into resource allocation optimization sub-problem and scheduling optimization sub-problem firstly. Second, we optimize the resource allocation sub-problem via alternating direction multiplier method(ADMM) and scheduling sub-problem via Lagrangian dual method repeatedly.Third, we prove that the proposed resource allocation algorithm based ADMM approaches sublinear convergence theoretically. Finally, we demonstrate that the proposed JIRPB optimization algorithm improves the LEO satellite communication system throughput.

Channel Correlation Based User Grouping Algorithm for Nonlinear Precoding Satellite Communication System

Low Earth Orbit(LEO)multibeam satellites will be widely used in the next generation of satellite communication systems,whose inter-beam interference will inevitably limit the performance of the whole system.Nonlinear precoding such as Tomlinson-Harashima precoding(THP)algorithm has been proved to be a promising technology to solve this problem,which has smaller noise amplification effect compared with linear precoding.However,the similarity of different user channels(defined as channel correlation)will degrade the performance of THP algorithm.In this paper,we qualitatively analyze the inter-beam interference in the whole process of LEO satellite over a specific coverage area,and the impact of channel correlation on Signal-to-Noise Ratio(SNR)of receivers when THP is applied.One user grouping algorithm is proposed based on the analysis of channel correlation,which could decrease the number of users with high channel correlation in each precoding group,thus improve the performance of THP.Furthermore,our algorithm is designed under the premise of co-frequency deployment and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(OFDM),which leads to more users under severe inter-beam interference compared to the existing research on geostationary orbit satellites broadcasting systems.Simulation results show that the proposed user grouping algorithm possesses higher channel capacity and better bit error rate(BER)performance in high SNR conditions relative to existing works.

Satellite Communications with 5G, B5G, and 6G: Challenges and Prospects

Satellite communications, pivotal for global connectivity, are increasingly converging with cutting-edge mobile networks, notably 5G, B5G, and 6G. This amalgamation heralds the promise of universal, high-velocity communication, yet it is not without its challenges. Paramount concerns encompass spectrum allocation, the harmonization of network architectures, and inherent latency issues in satellite transmissions. Potential mitigations, such as dynamic spectrum sharing and the deployment of edge computing, are explored as viable solutions. Looking ahead, the advent of quantum communications within satellite frameworks and the integration of AI spotlight promising research trajectories. These advancements aim to foster a seamless and synergistic coexistence between satellite communications and next-gen mobile networks.

Deep learning to estimate ocean subsurface salinity structure in the Indian Ocean using satellite observations

Accurately estimating the ocean subsurface salinity structure(OSSS)is crucial for understanding ocean dynamics and predicting climate variations.We present a convolutional neural network(CNN)model to estimate the OSSS in the Indian Ocean using satellite data and Argo observations.We evaluated the performance of the CNN model in terms of its vertical and spatial distribution,as well as seasonal variation of OSSS estimation.Results demonstrate that the CNN model accurately estimates the most significant salinity features in the Indian Ocean using sea surface data with no significant differences from Argo-derived OSSS.However,the estimation accuracy of the CNN model varies with depth,with the most challenging depth being approximately 70 m,corresponding to the halocline layer.Validations of the CNN model’s accuracy in estimating OSSS in the Indian Ocean are also conducted by comparing Argo observations and CNN model estimations along two selected sections and four selected boxes.The results show that the CNN model effectively captures the seasonal variability of salinity,demonstrating its high performance in salinity estimation using sea surface data.Our analysis reveals that sea surface salinity has the strongest correlation with OSSS in shallow layers,while sea surface height anomaly plays a more significant role in deeper layers.These preliminary results provide valuable insights into the feasibility of estimating OSSS using satellite observations and have implications for studying upper ocean dynamics using machine learning techniques.

Analysis of the joint detection capability of the SMILE satellite and EISCAT-3D radar

The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer(SMILE)satellite is a small magnetosphere–ionosphere link explorer developed cooperatively between China and Europe.It pioneers the use of X-ray imaging technology to perform large-scale imaging of the Earth’s magnetosheath and polar cusp regions.It uses a high-precision ultraviolet imager to image the overall configuration of the aurora and monitor changes in the source of solar wind in real time,using in situ detection instruments to improve human understanding of the relationship between solar activity and changes in the Earth’s magnetic field.The SMILE satellite is scheduled to launch in 2025.The European Incoherent Scatter Sciences Association(EISCAT)-3D radar is a new generation of European incoherent scatter radar constructed by EISCAT and is the most advanced ground-based ionospheric experimental device in the high-latitude polar region.It has multibeam and multidirectional quasi-real-time three-dimensional(3D)imaging capabilities,continuous monitoring and operation capabilities,and multiple-baseline interferometry capabilities.Joint detection by the SMILE satellite and the EISCAT-3D radar is of great significance for revealing the coupling process of the solar wind–magnetosphere–ionosphere.Therefore,we performed an analysis of the joint detection capability of the SMILE satellite and EISCAT-3D,analyzed the period during which the two can perform joint detection,and defined the key scientific problems that can be solved by joint detection.In addition,we developed Web-based software to search for and visualize the joint detection period of the SMILE satellite and EISCAT-3D radar,which lays the foundation for subsequent joint detection experiments and scientific research.

Proposal for a realtime Einstein-synchronization-defined satellite virtual clock

Realization of high performance satellite onboard clock is vital for various positioning, navigation, and timing applications. For further improvement of the synchronization-based satellite time and frequency references, we propose a geosynchronous(GEO) satellite virtual clock concept based on ground–satellite synchronization and present a beacon transponder structure for its implementation(scheduled for launch in 2025), which does not require atomic clocks to be mounted on the satellite. Its high performance relies only on minor modifications to the existing transponder structure of GEO satellites. We carefully model the carrier phase link and analyze the factors causing link asymmetry within the special relativity. Considering that performance of such synchronization-based satellite clocks is primarily limited by the link's random phase noise, which cannot be adequately modeled, we design a closed-loop experiment based on commercial GEO satellites for pre-evaluation. This experiment aims at extracting the zero-means random part of the ground-satellite Ku-band carrier phase via a feedback loop. Ultimately, we obtain a 1σ value of 0.633 ps(two-way link), following the Gaussian distribution. From this result, we conclude that the proposed real-time Einstein-synchronization-defined satellite virtual clock can achieve picosecond-level replication of onboard time and frequency.

The First Verification Test of Space-Ground Collaborative Intelligence via Cloud-Native Satellites

Recent advancements in satellite technologies and the declining cost of access to space have led to the emergence of large satellite constellations in Low Earth Orbit(LEO).However,these constellations often rely on bent-pipe architecture,resulting in high communication costs.Existing onboard inference architectures suffer from limitations in terms of low accuracy and inflexibility in the deployment and management of in-orbit applications.To address these challenges,we propose a cloud-native-based satellite design specifically tailored for Earth Observation tasks,enabling diverse computing paradigms.In this work,we present a case study of a satellite-ground collaborative inference system deployed in the Tiansuan constellation,demonstrating a remarkable 50%accuracy improvement and a substantial 90%data reduction.Our work sheds light on in-orbit energy,where in-orbit computing accounts for 17%of the total onboard energy consumption.Our approach represents a significant advancement of cloud-native satellite,aiming to enhance the accuracy of in-orbit computing while simultaneously reducing communication cost.

MTCR-CR Routing Strategy for Connection-Oriented Routing over Satellite Networks

The high-speed movement of satellites makes it not feasible to directly apply the mature routing scheme on the ground to the satellite network.DT-DVTR in the snapshot-based connectionoriented routing strategy is one of the representative solutions,but it still has room for improvement in terms of routing stability.In this paper,we propose an improved scheme for connection-oriented routing strategy named the Minimal Topology Change Routing based on Collaborative Rules(MTCR-CR).The MTCR-CR uses continuous time static topology snapshots based on satellite status to search for intersatellite link(ISL)construction solutions that meet the minimum number of topology changes to avoid route oscillations.The simulation results in Beidou-3 show that compared with DT-DVTR,MTCR-CR reduces the number of routing changes by about 92%,the number of path changes caused by routing changes is about38%,and the rerouting time is reduced by approximately 47%.At the same time,in order to show our algorithm more comprehensively,the same experimental index test was also carried out on the Globalstar satellite constellation.

Recent Progress of Earth Observation Satellites in China

Currently,China has 32 Earth observation satellites in orbit.The satellites can provide various data such as optical,multispectral,infrared,and radar.The spatial resolution of China Earth observation satellites ranges from low to medium to high.The satellites possess the capability to observe across multiple spectral bands,under all weather conditions,and at all times.The data of China Earth observation satellites has been widely used in fields such as natural resource detection,environmental monitoring and protection,disaster prevention and reduction,urban planning and mapping,agricultural and forestry surveys,land survey and geological prospecting,and ocean forecasting,achieving huge social benefits.This article introduces the recent progress of Earth observation satellites in China since 2022,especially the satellite operation,data archiving,data distribution and data coverage.

Multi-network-region traffic cooperative scheduling in large-scale LEO satellite networks

A low-Earth-orbit(LEO)satellite network can provide full-coverage access services worldwide and is an essential candidate for future 6G networking.However,the large variability of the geographic distribution of the Earth’s population leads to an uneven service volume distribution of access service.Moreover,the limitations on the resources of satellites are far from being able to serve the traffic in hotspot areas.To enhance the forwarding capability of satellite networks,we first assess how hotspot areas under different load cases and spatial scales significantly affect the network throughput of an LEO satellite network overall.Then,we propose a multi-region cooperative traffic scheduling algorithm.The algorithm migrates low-grade traffic from hotspot areas to coldspot areas for forwarding,significantly increasing the overall throughput of the satellite network while sacrificing some latency of end-to-end forwarding.This algorithm can utilize all the global satellite resources and improve the utilization of network resources.We model the cooperative multi-region scheduling of large-scale LEO satellites.Based on the model,we build a system testbed using OMNET++to compare the proposed method with existing techniques.The simulations show that our proposed method can reduce the packet loss probability by 30%and improve the resource utilization ratio by 3.69%.

OFDMA-Based Unsourced Random Access in LEO Satellite Internet of Things

This paper investigates the low earth orbit(LEO)satellite-enabled coded compressed sensing(CCS)unsourced random access(URA)in orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA)framework,where a massive uniform planar array(UPA)is equipped on the satellite.In LEO satellite communications,unavoidable timing and frequency offsets cause phase shifts in the transmitted signals,substantially diminishing the decoding performance of current terrestrial CCS URA receiver.To cope with this issue,we expand the inner codebook with predefined timing and frequency offsets and formulate the inner decoding as a tractable compressed sensing(CS)problem.Additionally,we leverage the inherent sparsity of the UPA-equipped LEO satellite angular domain channels,thereby enabling the outer decoder to support more active devices.Furthermore,the outputs of the outer decoder are used to reduce the search space of the inner decoder,which cuts down the computational complexity and accelerates the convergence of the inner decoding.Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Performance evaluation of HY-2 series satellites in marine gravity field recovery

China has successfully launched four Haiyang-2(HY-2)series altimetry satellites.HY-2A has attracted significant attention in gravity field recovery,but the performance of other HY-2 series satellites,including HY-2B/C/D,is seldom discussed.This study evaluated the performance of all the HY-2 series satellites in recovering marine gravity field.First,the crossover discrepancies in sea surface height of the four satellites,HY-2A,HY-2B,HY-2C,and HY-2D,were analyzed to assess their altimetry stability.It was found that HY-2B had the best altimetry quality,followed by HY-2D.Subsequently,different combina-tions of altimetry data were used to calculate vertical deflections and gravity anomalies in the South China Sea(112°E-119°E,12°N-20°N).The results showed that combining data from HY-2B,HY-2C,and HY-2D improved the inversion accuracy of gravity anomalies by 0.3 mGal compared to using HY-2A data alone.HY-2C and HY-2D contributed to enhancing the accuracy of the east component of vertical deflections.

Blockchain-Based MCS Detection Framework of Abnormal Spectrum Usage for Satellite Spectrum Sharing Scenario

In this paper, the problem of abnormal spectrum usage between satellite spectrum sharing systems is investigated to support multi-satellite spectrum coexistence. Given the cost of monitoring, the mobility of low-orbit satellites, and the directional nature of their signals, traditional monitoring methods are no longer suitable, especially in the case of multiple power level. Mobile crowdsensing(MCS), as a new technology, can make full use of idle resources to complete a variety of perceptual tasks. However, traditional MCS heavily relies on a centralized server and is vulnerable to single point of failure attacks. Therefore, we replace the original centralized server with a blockchain-based distributed service provider to enable its security. Therefore, in this work, we propose a blockchain-based MCS framework, in which we explain in detail how this framework can achieve abnormal frequency behavior monitoring in an inter-satellite spectrum sharing system. Then, under certain false alarm probability, we propose an abnormal spectrum detection algorithm based on mixed hypothesis test to maximize detection probability in single power level and multiple power level scenarios, respectively. Finally, a Bad out of Good(BooG) detector is proposed to ease the computational pressure on the blockchain nodes. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

High performance receiving and processing technology in satellite beam hopping communication

Beam-hopping technology has become one of the major research hotspots for satellite communication in order to enhance their communication capacity and flexibility.However,beam hopping causes the traditional continuous time-division multiplexing signal in the forward downlink to become a burst signal,satellite terminal receivers need to solve multiple key issues such as burst signal rapid synchronization and high-per-formance reception.Firstly,this paper analyzes the key issues of burst communication for traffic signals in beam hopping sys-tems,and then compares and studies typical carrier synchro-nization algorithms for burst signals.Secondly,combining the requirements of beam-hopping communication systems for effi-cient burst and low signal-to-noise ratio reception of downlink signals in forward links,a decoding assisted bidirectional vari-able parameter iterative carrier synchronization technique is pro-posed,which introduces the idea of iterative processing into car-rier synchronization.Aiming at the technical characteristics of communication signal carrier synchronization,a new technical approach of bidirectional variable parameter iteration is adopted,breaking through the traditional understanding that loop struc-tures cannot adapt to low signal-to-noise ratio burst demodula-tion.Finally,combining the DVB-S2X standard physical layer frame format used in high throughput satellite communication systems,the research and performance simulation are con-ducted.The results show that the new technology proposed in this paper can significantly shorten the carrier synchronization time of burst signals,achieve fast synchronization of low signal-to-noise ratio burst signals,and have the unique advantage of flexible and adjustable parameters.

A VGGNet-based correction for satellite altimetry-derived gravity anomalies to improve the accuracy of bathymetry to depths of 6500 m

Understanding the topographic patterns of the seafloor is a very important part of understanding our planet.Although the science involved in bathymetric surveying has advanced much over the decades,less than 20%of the seafloor has been precisely modeled to date,and there is an urgent need to improve the accuracy and reduce the uncertainty of underwater survey data.In this study,we introduce a pretrained visual geometry group network(VGGNet)method based on deep learning.To apply this method,we input gravity anomaly data derived from ship measurements and satellite altimetry into the model and correct the latter,which has a larger spatial coverage,based on the former,which is considered the true value and is more accurate.After obtaining the corrected high-precision gravity model,it is inverted to the corresponding bathymetric model by applying the gravity-depth correlation.We choose four data pairs collected from different environments,i.e.,the Southern Ocean,Pacific Ocean,Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea,to evaluate the topographic correction results of the model.The experiments show that the coefficient of determination(R~2)reaches 0.834 among the results of the four experimental groups,signifying a high correlation.The standard deviation and normalized root mean square error are also evaluated,and the accuracy of their performance improved by up to 24.2%compared with similar research done in recent years.The evaluation of the R^(2) values at different water depths shows that our model can achieve performance results above 0.90 at certain water depths and can also significantly improve results from mid-water depths when compared to previous research.Finally,the bathymetry corrected by our model is able to show an accuracy improvement level of more than 21%within 1%of the total water depths,which is sufficient to prove that the VGGNet-based method has the ability to perform a gravity-bathymetry correction and achieve outstanding results.

The Performance of Downward Shortwave Radiation Products from Satellite and Reanalysis over the Transect of Zhongshan Station to Dome A, East Antarctica

The downward shortwave radiation(DSR) is an important part of the Earth's energy balance, driving Earth's system's energy, water, and carbon cycles. Due to the harsh Antarctic environment, the accuracy of DSR derived from satellite and reanalysis has not been systematically evaluated over the transect of Zhongshan station to Dome A, East Antarctica.Therefore, this study aims to evaluate DSR reanalysis products(ERA5-Land, ERA5, MERRA-2) and satellite products(CERES and ICDR) in this area. The results indicate that DSR exhibits obvious monthly and seasonal variations, with higher values in summer than in winter. The ERA5-Land(ICDR) DSR product demonstrated the highest(lowest) accuracy,as evidenced by a correlation coefficient of 0.988(0.918), a root-mean-square error of 23.919(69.383) W m^(–2), a mean bias of –1.667(–28.223) W m^(–2) and a mean absolute error of 13.37(58.99) W m^(–2). The RMSE values for the ERA5-Land reanalysis product at seven stations, namely Zhongshan, Panda 100, Panda 300, Panda 400, Taishan, Panda 1100, and Kunlun, were 30.938, 29.447, 34.507, 29.110, 20.339, 17.267, and 14.700 W m^(-2), respectively;with corresponding bias values of 9.887, –12.159, –19.181, –15.519, –8.118, 6.297, and 3.482 W m^(–2). Regarding seasonality, ERA5-Land, ERA5,and MERRA-2 reanalysis products demonstrate higher accuracies during spring and summer, while ICDR products are least accurate in autumn. Cloud cover, water vapor, total ozone, and severe weather are the main factors affecting DSR. The error of DSR products is greatest in coastal areas(particularly at the Zhongshan station) and decreases towards the inland areas of Antarctica.

Covert LEO Satellite Communication Aided by Generative Adversarial Network Based Cooperative UAV Jamming

In this paper,we study the covert performance of the downlink low earth orbit(LEO)satellite communication,where the unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)is employed as a cooperative jammer.To maximize the covert rate of the LEO satellite transmission,a multi-objective problem is formulated to jointly optimize the UAV’s jamming power and trajectory.For practical consideration,we assume that the UAV can only have partial environmental information,and can’t know the detection threshold and exact location of the eavesdropper on the ground.To solve the multiobjective problem,we propose the data-driven generative adversarial network(DD-GAN)based method to optimize the power and trajectory of the UAV,in which the sample data is collected by using genetic algorithm(GA).Simulation results show that the jamming solution of UAV generated by DD-GAN can achieve an effective trade-off between covert rate and probability of detection errors when only limited prior information is obtained.