METHOD FOR CALIBRATING SPACE ERRORS, AND METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ESTIMATING THE ATTITUDE OF A VEHICLE

摘要

The present invention relates to a method (50) for calibrating space errors induced by phase biases having a detrimental effect on the measurements of phase differences of radio signals received by three unaligned receiving antennas of a vehicle. The method (50) comprises the steps (52, 54) of estimating an inter-satellite angular deviation of a pair of satellites in two different ways: i) on the basis of the respective positions of the vehicle and of the satellites, so as to obtain a theoretical inter-satellite angular deviation; and ii) on the basis of the respective directions of incidence of the satellites relative to the vehicle, which are determined from phase measurements, so as to obtain an estimated inter-satellite angular deviation. The method (50) comprises the step (55) of estimating the space errors on the basis of said theoretical and estimated inter-satellite angular deviations. The present invention also relates to a method and system for estimating the attitude of a vehicle, in particular a spacecraft.