The invention provides a gravity-gradient-invariant-based method for estimating an
orbit element. The method comprises: step one, carrying out preparation work; step two, carrying out
decomposition of an ideal
gravity gradient tensor under an east-noth-up (ENU) coordinate
system and obtaining feature values; step three, solving
decomposition of a measuring epoch J2 model gravity field
tensor under the ENU coordinate
system and obtaining feature values; step four, solving all measuring epochs r and phi by using feature values of a J2
gravity gradient matrix; step five, calculating an initial
orbit element by using the r and phi; and step six, carrying out
orbit element
smoothing. Therefore, with utilization of the
gravity gradient matrix invariant information measured during the
satellite operating process, a geometrical distance between the
satellite and the earth's core and the
latitude of the earth's core are obtained by iterative solution; a measurement equation that uses a semi-major axis, an eccentricity ratio, an orbit inclination angle, a perigee depression angle, and a true anomaly in an orbital element as state parameters is provided by using an obtained data as an observed quantity; and a perturbation kinetic equation of the orbital element is introduced innovatively and five
orbital elements are estimated by using a batching least square method. The gravity-gradient-invariant-based method has advantages of high autonomous degree, high anti-interference capability, and low building cost and the like and has advantages that the traditional method does not have in the
deep space exploration field.