Recursive Estimation of Spacecraft Position Using X-ray Pulsar Time of Arrival Measurements

Suneel I. Sheikh and Darryll J. Pines

Abstract:	"The use of pulsars for spacecraft position determination has been considered since their discovery [1-3]. These celestial sources provide unique signals that can be detected by sensors placed onboard spacecraft. Upon sufficient detection and processing, these signals can be used to generate range measurements with respect to an inertial reference location. Multiple measurements can be used to determine a navigation solution and enhance autonomous vehicle operation. This paper provides a description of blending pulsar-derived range measurements within a Kalman filter for Earth-orbiting spacecraft navigation. Several examples at different orbital altitudes are presented to determine the expected navigation performance using recursive measurements obtained from models of pulsed X-ray signals."
Published in:	Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2005) June 27 - 29, 2005 Royal Sonesta Hotel Cambridge, MA
Pages:	464 - 475
Cite this article:	Sheikh, Suneel I., Pines, Darryll J., "Recursive Estimation of Spacecraft Position Using X-ray Pulsar Time of Arrival Measurements," Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2005), Cambridge, MA, June 2005, pp. 464-475.
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