Elementary Effects Sensitivity Analysis of Lunar PNT Performance Metrics

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Elementary_Effects_Sensitivity_Analysis_of_Lunar_PNT_Performance_Metrics_2.pdf (1.03 MB)
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Gabhart, Austin S.
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Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics was established in 1931, with a name change in 1962 to the School of Aerospace Engineering
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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/80729
Abstract
Multiple space agencies have announced plans to deploy position, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems to support lunar operations. Indeed, it has consistently been evaluated as one of the most important aspects to support sustained operations. Most existing work has focused on optimizing combinations of frozen orbits to have acceptable Dilution of Precision (DoP) characteristics, then analyzing the effect of technology on specific designs. However, the most common dilution of precision measures assume that the error of each measurement is identical. By loosening the identical error assumption, geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) becomes user equivalent range error (UERE) weighted dilution of precision, or KDOP. KDOP introduces a recoupling of the geometry of a constellation and the technologies on board. The objective of this work is to conduct a full space sensitivity analysis across a number of performance measures: KDOP, UERE, GDOP, and coverage. To conduct sensitivity analysis, a full lunar PNT model with orbit determination and time synchronization support from GPS, high-fidelity orbital dynamics, and dynamic clock models will be utilized. Due to the size of the design space and computational requirements of the model, the elementary effects, or method of Morris, was selected for the sensitivity analysis. This sensitivity analysis method provides a qualitative ranking of the importance of parameters, operating as a good proxy of the total sensitivity index. It was found that the elementary effects method was capable of identifying known relationships in the design space. The comparison of the analysis with two and six orbital planes demonstrated interactions between the design parameters and the number of planes. KDOP and UERE were shown to have strong sensitivities to both orbital and technology parameters, showing that design space explorations should cover both classes of design variable.
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2026-01
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