美国SEXTANT项目脉冲星导航空间试验进展及启迪

Progress and enlightenment of the pulsar navigation space test of SEXTANT project in the United States

X射线计时与导航技术的空间站在轨验证试验(SEXTANT),是美国国家航空和航天局(NASA)在国际空间站(ISS)上开展的脉冲星导航试验项目,首次利用毫秒脉冲星实现近地空间航天器优于10km的脉冲星导航试验。首先介绍了X射线脉冲星导航技术及SEXTANT项目发展过程,论述了SEXTANT项目的研究意义、系统结构和各部分技术细节;针对国际上首次在轨成功演示脉冲星导航空间试验,详细地论述了其实施操作过程及导航解算策略,有利于我们掌握其技术细节;最后简要地对比国内外脉冲星导航发展情况,提出了利用SEXTANT公开发布的观测数据检验我国脉冲星导航算法实用性的建议。

Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology(SEXTANT)is a pulsar navigation test project carried out by NASA on the International Space Station.It is the first time for the near earth spacecraft to achieve pulsar navigation accuracy better than 10 km by using millisecond pulsars.The X-ray pulsar navigation technology and the development process of SEXTANT project are introduced,and the research significance,system structure and technical details of each part of the SEXTANT project are discussed.As it is the first successful demonstration of pulsar navigation space test in the world,the implementation process and navigation solution strategy of pulsar navigation test are described in detail,which will help to understand the technical details.Finally,based on a comparison with the development of pulsar navigation in China,it is proposed to test the practicability of our algorithm using SEXTANT data.