Citation
Abstract
The Soviet Phobos Lander mission witl place two spacecraft on the Martian moon Phobos in 1989. Measurements of the range from Earth-based stations to the landers will allow an accurate determination of the ephemerides of Phobos and Mars, Delta VLBI between the landers and compact radio sources nearby on the sky will be used to obtain precise estimates of the angular offset between the radio and planetary reference frames. The accuracy of this frame-tie estimate is expected to be in the vicinity of 10 nrad, depending on how well several error sources can be controlled (calibrated or reduced). Many candidate radio sources for VLBI measurements have been identified, but additional work is necessary to select those sources which have characteristics appropriate to the present application. Strategies for performing the source selection are described below.
Details
- Volume
- 42-92
- Published
- February 15, 1988
- Pages
- 1–12
- File Size
- 622.0 KB