Spacecraft Doppler Tracking as a Xylophone Detector

Massimo Tinto

Abstract: We discuss spacecraft Doppler tracking in which Doppler data recorded on the ground are linearly combined with Doppler measurements made on board a spacecraft. By using the four-link radio system first proposed by Vessot and Levine, we derive a new method for removing from the combined data the frequency fluctuations due to the Earth troposphere, ionosphere, and mechanical vibrations of the antenna on the ground. Our method provider also a way for reducing by several orders of magnitude, at selected Fourier components, the frequency fluctuations due to other noise sources, such as the clock on board the spacecraft or the antenna and buffeting of the probe by non gravitational forces. In this respect spacecraft Doppler tracking can be regarded as a xylophone detector. Estimates of the sensitivities achievable by this xylophone are presented for two tests of Einstein's theory of relativity: searches for gravitational waves and measurements of the gravitational red shift. This experimental technique could be extended to other tests of the theory of relativity, and to radio science experiments that rely on high-precision Doppler measurements.
Published in: Proceedings of the 27th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting
November 29 - 1, 1995
The Doubletree Hotel at Horton Plaza
San Diego, California
Pages: 467 - 478
Cite this article: Tinto, Massimo, "Spacecraft Doppler Tracking as a Xylophone Detector," Proceedings of the 27th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, San Diego, California, November 1995, pp. 467-478.
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