Citation
Abstract
This article describes the computer configurations and software used at JPL in an experimental remote monitoring and verification of the operation of the Sequential Component Ranging System during the Superior Conjunction of the Mariner Mars 1971 spacecraft. At the time of the spacecraft’s closest approach to the Sun, the ranging operation was subjected to both an extremely low signal-tonoise ratio and perturbations from solar plasma. The Sigma 5 computer at JPL was programmed to perform a Maximum-Likelihood range measurement, using the range-code correlation values supplied (in real time) from the ranging system at the Mars Deep Space Station (DSS 14). The Maximum-Likelihood decision process provided about a 1.5-dB improvement in ranging error probability considering additive noise alone. The process was, however, relatively impractical to implement in the 920 computer which controlled the ranging operation at DSS 14 and performed range measurement via a sequential decision process.
Details
- Volume
- XV
- Published
- June 15, 1973
- Pages
- 156–166
- File Size
- 1.0 MB