Citation
Abstract
This article presents the first direct measurement of the station-differenced nonlinear phase behavior of the front-end electronics used in delta-differenced one-way range (DDOR) measurements. The dispersion’s stability and spectral components are measured, and preliminary results indicate that two of the largest DDOR error sources may be approximately halved with simple experiment and calibration modifications. Spacecraft– spacecraft relative navigation can also be improved with similar calibrations. The measured phase deviations induce a systematic delay error in DDOR measurements due to different spectral footprints between spacecraft and quasar sources. The observed phase behavior of the front-end electronics is consistent with indirect estimates of phase variations based on DDOR repeatability tests. The dispersion’s spectral behavior is shown to be low-frequency peaked, making self-calibration schemes feasible. The stability of these effects was measured at DSS-26 and DSS-43 on timescales of up to 1.5 hr and for antenna pointing differences of up to 20 deg, and found to be better than this experiment’s resolution of ~0.05 deg over 62.5 kHz.
Details
- Volume
- 42-184
- Published
- February 15, 2011
- Pages
- 1–15
- File Size
- 961.4 KB