The future of deep space exploration depends upon technological advancement towards improving spacecraft's autonomy and versatility. This study aims to examine the feasibility of autonomous orbit determination using advanced accelerometer measurements. The objective of this research is to ascertain specific sensor requirements to meet pre‐defined mission navigation error budgets. Traditional inertial navigation (dead reckoning and external aiding) is not considered. Instead, measurements from pairs of advanced, highly sensitive accelerometers (e.g., cold atom accelerometers) are used onboard to determine gravity field gradients, which are then correlated to onboard gravity maps and used to determine orbital information. Linear Covariance Theory helps to efficiently conduct an error budget analysis of the system. This error budget analysis helps to determine the effect of specific error sources in the sensor measurements, thereby providing information to rank and compare relevant sensor parameters and determine an optimal sensor configuration for a given space mission. The procedure is repeated to evaluate different accelerometer configurations and sensor parameters.

中文翻译：

---

基于精密惯性传感器的导航系统（SAPIENS）的灵敏度分析

深空探测的未来取决于技术进步，以改善航天器的自主性和多功能性。这项研究旨在检验使用先进的加速度计测量进行自主轨道确定的可行性。这项研究的目的是确定特定的传感器要求，以满足预定的任务导航误差预算。没有考虑传统的惯性导航（航位推算和外部辅助）。取而代之的是，船上使用来自成对的高级，高度灵敏的加速度计（例如，冷原子加速度计）的测量值来确定重力场梯度，然后将其与机载重力图相关联并用于确定轨道信息。线性协方差理论有助于有效地进行系统的误差预算分析。该误差预算分析有助于确定特定误差源在传感器测量中的影响，从而提供信息以对相关传感器参数进行排名和比较，并确定给定太空任务的最佳传感器配置。重复该过程以评估不同的加速度计配置和传感器参数。