Citation
Abstract
Navigation accuracies attainable with radio tracking of an outer-planets spacecraft in the vicinity of Saturn have been investigated. Analysis of the results indicates that navigation accuracy problems associated with low spacecraft declinations and with batch filtering of conventional radio data when unmodeled accelerations are acting on the spacecraft may be avoided by employing range and range-rate data taken simultaneously by two widely separated stations. With the availability of two-station simultaneous data, the uncertainty in Saturn’s ephemeris becomes the error source which limits the accuracy of the pre-encounter navigation.
Details
- Volume
- X
- Published
- August 15, 1972
- Pages
- 59–75
- File Size
- 1.3 MB