Spacecraft-Spacecraft Doppler Tracking as a Xylophone Interferometer Detector of Gravitational Radiation

Massimo Tinto

Abstract:	We discuss spacecraft-spacecraft Doppler tracking as a detector of gravitational radiation, in which one-way and Two-way Doppler data recorded onboard the two spacecraft are time-tagged and telemetered back to Earth. By linearly combining the four Doppler data sets, we derive a method for reducing by several orders of magnitude, at selected Fourier components, the frequency fluctuation due to the clocks onboard the spacecraft. The nonzero gravitational wave signal remaining at these frequencies makes this spacecraft-spacecraft Doppler tracking technique the equivalent of a xylophone interferometer detector of gravitational radiation. In the assumption of calibrating the frequency fluctuations induced by the interplanetary plasma, a strain sensitivity of 3.7x10^-19 at 10^-3 Hz is estimated. Experiments of this kind could be performed by future interplanetary multi-spacecraft missions planned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Published in:	Proceedings of the 28th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting December 3 - 5, 1996 Hyatt Regency Reston Town Center Reston, Virginia
Pages:	471 - 476
Cite this article:	Tinto, Massimo, "Spacecraft-Spacecraft Doppler Tracking as a Xylophone Interferometer Detector of Gravitational Radiation," Proceedings of the 28th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Reston, Virginia, December 1996, pp. 471-476.
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