Citation
Abstract
In the technique described in this article, the differential angular position of a spacecraft with respect to another spacecraft is determined by a radio interferometric technique that is designated here as quadruply differenced one-way ranging (QDOR). This technique allows very accurate planetary navigation with respect to orbital satellites within the Deep Space Network resources. The arrival signal phases of a spacecraft are differenced between two receiving antennas and then the resultant phase difference is differenced against another spacecraft. The resultant differential phase delay is calibrated by a quasar. The cycle ambiguities in the phase are determined from group-delay measurements of differential delta differential one-way ranging (ΔDOR); the ambiguity resolution depends on reducing certain ΔDOR errors. The presented cycle ambiguity resolution technique can also be applied to phase referencing to a quasar instead of a spacecraft; however, its confidence level will depend on the quasar position error. An analysis of a data set provides formal errors at the picosecond delay level with a temporal position resolution of 5 min. This is equivalent to about 0.05 nrad differential angular coordinate error that is approximately 10 m at Mars.
Details
- Volume
- 42-186
- Published
- August 15, 2011
- Pages
- 1–15
- File Size
- 404.0 KB