A Regenerative Pseudonoise Range Tracking System for the New Horizons Spacecraft

Richard J. DeBolt, Dennis J. Duven, Christopher B. Haskins, Christopher C. DeBoy, Thomas W. LeFevere

Abstract:	"A pseudonoise regenerative ranging tracker has been developed as part of the telecommunications system for the NASA New Horizons Mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The New Horizons spacecraft pushes the boundaries of many space technologies to meet the unique demands of the mission over extreme distances. The long Earthranges at which the New Horizons spacecraft must operate will test the limits of conventional turn-around tone ranging, which has been the standard in most interplanetary missions. In addition to conventional tone ranging, the New Horizons telecommunications team has implemented a pseudonoise regenerative range tracking circuit as part of the spacecraftÕs digital receiver. The regenerative ranging circuit locks to a pseudonoise, highrate, digital signal that has been modulated onto the uplink carrier by the ground station. It then constructs a low-noise replica of the received pseudonoise code and modulates the downlink carrier with this reconstructed replica. The regenerative ranging system provides a substantial reduction of noise in the returned ranging signal and results in more accurate ranging results and/or shorter-range acquisition times. From an operations viewpoint, regenerative ranging reduces the complexity of setting up and conducting a ranging campaign, with fewer control parameters and shorter view periods. This paper will briefly discuss the theoretical and analytical development of the regenerative ranging circuit. The implementation of the regenerative ranging design within a single FPGA and its predicted mission performance will also be detailed."
Published in:	Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2005) June 27 - 29, 2005 Royal Sonesta Hotel Cambridge, MA
Pages:	487 - 497
Cite this article:	DeBolt, Richard J., Duven, Dennis J., Haskins, Christopher B., DeBoy, Christopher C., LeFevere, Thomas W., "A Regenerative Pseudonoise Range Tracking System for the New Horizons Spacecraft," Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2005), Cambridge, MA, June 2005, pp. 487-497.
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