NOVEL CELESTIAL NAVIGATION FOR SATELLITE USING X-RAY PULSARS

The X-ray pulsar-based navigation is a novel technology for the satellite autonomous navigation. The position and the velocity of the satellite are deterimined by using the pulse phases detected at the satellite and predicted by the pulse timing models. With the detected pulse phase, the satellite position with respect to the Earth center can be calculated along the line-of-sight to the pulsar. Using three pulsars, the satellite position in the in- ertial frame can be resolved. The extended Kalman filter （EKF） algorithm is designed to incorporate the range measurements with the satellite dynamics. Simulation verification shows that the proposed algorithm can accu- rately determine the satellite orbit, with the position error less than 100 m. Furthermore, the factors influencing the navigation performance are also discussed.

卫星导航电文的在轨自主更新──GNSS导航信号的收发问题之八

导航卫星自主导航,是实现导航电文在轨自主更新的有效途径。它是在轨卫星完全利用安设在它上面的测量设备和计算装置,通过卫星自行导航信息采集,进而实施在轨导航数据处理,生成导航电文,发送给用户,而不依赖于地面设备支持的导航。本文论述了导航卫星自主导航对导航电文的更新方法及其相关问题。

Pulse phase and doppler frequency estimation of X-ray pulsars under conditions of spacecraft and binary motion and its application in navigation

The pulse phase and doppler frequency estimation of X-ray pulsars in dynamic situations and its application in navigation is a problem that has not been fully investigated. In this paper, solutions are proposed to solve this problem under conditions of spacecraft and binary motion. A high-precision doppler frequency (velocity) measurement model as well as a phase (range) measurement model is established. The averaged maximum-likelihood estimator is developed for the dynamic pulse phase estimation. The pulse phase tracking technique is used in the doppler frequency determination. The tracking filter is redesigned and compared with the existing algorithms. The comparison verifies the advantage of the filter algorithm presented in this pa- per. Unlike traditional views, it is found that in dynamic situations, shorter observation interval lengths will result in higher-accuracy phase and frequency estimates as the tracking filter outputs. A photon-level integrated numerical simulation is performed. Simulation results testify to the validity of the proposed phase and doppler frequency estimation scheme, and show that incorporation of velocity measurements as well as the range ones into the navigation estimator will improve the navigation steady-state performance.

Modeling and Doppler measurement of X-ray pulsar

Generally,the Doppler caused by the velocity of the detector leads to distortion of the integrated profile of the X-ray pulsar,on the contrary,if the distortion can be used to measure the Doppler,then the velocity of the detector is easy to be solved.In view of this,the correlation of the periodic error arise from the Doppler and the integrated profile was analyzed,then,based on the Poisson distribution model of the X-ray Pulsar,a new signal model and the concept of the profile entropy was defined.Furthermore,the directly cumulated profile of the signal was modeled with the Doppler as a parameter,and then the Doppler was solved via optimal method.Simultaneously,the performance of phase measurement based on this method was studded.The analysis shows that this method can get rid of the periodic error due to the discrete sampling,and can obtain continuous phase estimation.The experiment verification shows the consistency of the theory and the experiment.

X-ray pulsar-based navigation using pulse phase and Doppler frequency measurements

In order to eliminate the impact of the Doppler effects caused by the motion of the spacecraft on the X-ray pulsar-based navigation, an innovative navigation method using the pulse phase and Doppler frequency measurements of the X-ray pulsars is proposed. Given the initial estimate of the spacecraft's state,the real-time photon arrival model is established at the spacecraft with respect to the spacecraft's position and velocity predicted by the orbit dynamic model and their estimation errors. On this basis, a maximum likelihood estimation algorithm directly using the observed photon event timestamps is developed to extract a single pair of pulse phase and Doppler frequency measurements caused by the spacecraft's state estimation error. Since the phase estimation error increases as the observation time increases, we propose a new measurement updating scheme of referring the measurements to the middle time of an observation interval. By using the ground-based simulation system of X-ray pulsar signals, a series of photon-level simulations are performed. The results testify to the feasibility and real-timeliness of the proposed navigation method, and show that the incorporation of the Doppler measurement as well as the pulse phase into the navigation filter can improve the navigation accuracy.

Orbit determination using incremental phase and TDOA of X-ray pulsar

X-ray pulsars offer stable, periodic X-ray pulse sequences that can be used in spacecraft positioning systems. A method using X-ray pulsars to determine the initial orbit of a satellite is presented in this paper. This method suggests only one detector to be equipped on the satellite and assumes that the detector observes three pulsars in turn. To improve the performance, the use of incremental phase in one observation duration is proposed, and the incremental phase is combined with the time difference of arrival(TDOA). Then, a weighted least squares(WLS) algorithm is formulated to calculate the initial orbit. Numerical simulations are performed to assess the proposed orbit determination method.

An improved phase measurement method of integrated pulse profile for pulsar

Integrated profile is one of the basic characteristic of X-ray pulsar. Gaussian function fit is used to model the components of X-ray pulsar profile, and it is combined with Poisson distribution model of X-ray pulsar to analyze Cramer-Rao low bound （CRLB） of phase, phase rate estimation and relation between CRLB and profile components. Then, a time domain method using minimum entropy is proposed for profile phase and phase rate estimation, and its effectiveness is explained using simulation examples.