Citation
Abstract
Future missions to the outer solar system or human exploration of Mars may use telemetry systems based on optical rather than radio transmitters. Pulsed laser transmission can be used to deliver telemetry rates of about 100 kbits/sec with an efficiency of several bits for each detected photon. This article discusses navigational observables that can be derived from timing pulsed laser signals. Error budgets are presented based on nominal ground station and spacecraft-transceiver designs. Assuming a pulsed optical uplink signal, two-way range accuracy may approach the few-centimeter level imposed by the troposphere uncertainty. Angular information can be achieved from differenced one-way range using two ground stations with the accuracy limited by the length of the available baseline and by clock synchronization and troposphere errors. A method of synchronizing the ground station clocks using optical ranging measurements is presented. This could allow differenced range accuracy to reach the few-centimeter troposphere limit.
Details
- Volume
- 42-101
- Published
- May 15, 1990
- Pages
- 121–135
- File Size
- 807.4 KB