Citation

Abstract

Quasi-very-long-baseline interferometry (QVLBI) has been used to predict Pioneer 10 flyby B-plane coordinates from simultaneous two- and three-way doppler data in the presence of unmodeled accelerations (= ~10-* km/s*) due to the four massive satellites of Jupiter. It is concluded from this study that the QVLBI technique for processing simultaneous two- and three-way doppler data is capable of predicting the encounter to within ~2000 km in the presence of unmodeled accelerations as large as 10-* km/s?. Calculations using two-way doppler data alone for the same nominal trajectory and a priori parameter statistics yielded systematic B-plane errors of the order of 100,000 km, with consequently meaningless formal uncertainties.

Details

Volume
42-22
Published
August 15, 1974
Pages
66–77
File Size
1.0 MB