Signal of Opportunity Navigation for Small Spacecraft in Deep Space

#Space #Navigation

Technical Webinar organized by AES

Spacecraft navigation outside of geosynchronous orbit (GEO) presents an ongoing challenge. Current navigational techniques rely on Earth-based tracking, particularly through NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). Navigation via the DSN is both fundamentally limited in terms of accuracy, as well as practically limited in terms of availability. Navigation via naturally occurring signals of opportunity, such as those produced by pulsars, quasars, and gamma-ray bursts, is proposed as an alternative navigation technique that could augment or eventually replace navigation via the DSN. This technique involves making range measurements based on the time-difference of arrival (TDOA) of a signal at the user and another location, usually either another cooperating user or a fixed reference point. Estimating the value of the TDOA is challenging, particularly because the signals in question are usually extremely weak. In this talk we describe algorithms for generating a 6 degree of freedom of freedom position, navigation and timing solution in deep space by measuring the time and angle of arrival of x-rays from pulsars. We also demonstrate their performance by post-processing data collected by x-ray detectors on the Suzaku and Chandra missions.

• Date: 21 Sep 2021
• Time: 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
• All times are (GMT-06:00) US/Central
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• Houston, Texas
• United States

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• Contact Event Host

• lorenzo.lomonte.us@ieee.org

• Co-sponsored by IEEE AESS

• Starts 17 September 2021 02:35 PM
• Ends 20 September 2021 06:00 PM
• All times are (GMT-06:00) US/Central
• No Admission Charge

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