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Study on autonomous navigation based on pulsar timing model

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Abstract

The basic principle of pulsar timing model was introduced, and the general relativistic corrections were analyzed when pulse time of arrival (TOA) was transferred to coordinate TOA at the Solar System Barycentre. Based on the shifting, an iterative method of autonomous position determination for spacecraft was developed. Accordingly, the linear form of the position offset equation was evolved. Using the initial estimated value of spacecraft’s position as the input of pulsar timing equation, through calculation of the offset between measured or transferred and predicted TOA, the position offset can be solved by Least Squares. At last, the main error sources including modeling error and parameters error were discussed.

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Correspondence to JianXun Li.

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Supported by the National Defence Laboratory Foundation of China (Grant No. 9140C3601010901) and Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2007F12) and the Technology Specialism Foundation of Shaanxi Education Department of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 07JK332), and the Innovative Research Plan of Xi’an University of Technology (Grant No. 105-210714)

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Li, J., Ke, X. Study on autonomous navigation based on pulsar timing model. Sci. China Ser. G-Phys. Mech. Astron. 52, 303–309 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-009-0015-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-009-0015-3

Keywords

Navigation