Analysis of the impact of line-of-sight calibration residuals on target positioning performance in astronomical optical detection systems

Astronomical optical detection systems often use a camera with visible or other optical spectrum to locate targets such as space debris. Since the target’s LOS (line of sight) data only contains direction information and no range information, it is necessary to integrate the LOS vectors from multiple observation platforms to accurately position the target. Recent researches show that using stars and other celestial bodies to calibrate the target's LOS is one of the technical approaches to improve the accuracy of target positioning. The target’s LOS calibration residuals will directly affect the precision of the target's position and velocity calculation results. The LOS calibration residuals can be divide into the fixed error component and the random error component. To address the significant impact of the fixed and random error components of the target’s LOS vector on the accuracy of target position and velocity calculations, a target detection model and a mathematical model for target position and velocity estimation are established in this paper. The effects of both fixed and random error components of the target LOS vector on the target position and speed calculation results are analyzed. Simulation results show that the position calculation results are mainly sensitive to the fixed error component, while the velocity calculation results are mainly sensitive to the random error component. The simulations validate the correctness of the mathematical analysis model and provide recommendations for enhancing the target positioning performance of astronomical optical detection systems.