Related papers: Pulsar Navigation in the Solar System
Current space missions primarily depend on Earth-based Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) systems involving human-in-the-loop operations. X-ray pulsar-based navigation offers a promising alternative by using the very precise periodic…
We discuss the possibility of an autonomous navigation system for spacecraft that is based on pulsar timing data. Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars that are observable as variable celestial sources of electromagnetic radiation.…
An external reference system suitable for deep space navigation can be defined by fast spinning and strongly magnetized neutron stars, called pulsars. Their beamed periodic signals have timing stabilities comparable to atomic clocks and…
Pulsars have at least two impressive applications. First, they can be used as highly accurate clocks, comparable in stability to atomic clocks; secondly, a small subset of pulsars, millisecond X-ray pulsars, provide all the necessary…
This article provides a review on X-ray pulsar-based navigation (XNAV). The review starts with the basic concept of XNAV, and briefly introduces the past, present and future projects concerning XNAV. This paper focuses on the advances of…
Usually, positions of spacecraft on interplanetary or deep space missions are determined by radar tracking from ground stations, a method by which uncertainty increases with distance from Earth. As an alternative, a spacecraft equipped with…
Shemar et al. (2016) presented results based on the output of a feasibility study for the European Space Agency (ESA) on the use of X-ray pulsars for deep space navigation, a concept often referred to as 'XNAV'. Here we describe some of the…
Pulsars are natural cosmic clocks. On long timescales they rival the precision of terrestrial atomic clocks. Using a technique called pulsar timing, the exact measurement of pulse arrival times allows a number of applications, ranging from…
We demonstrate how observations of pulsars can be used to help navigate a spacecraft travelling in the solar system. We make use of archival observations of millisecond pulsars from the Parkes radio telescope in order to demonstrate the…
This study demonstrated the pulsar navigation capability of the CubeSat X-ray observatory NinjaSat, which is equipped with two Gas Multiplier Counters (GMCs). The GMCs are sensitive to the 2-50 keV energy band and have an effective area of…
At present, there is a great worldwide interest in the development of technologies that allow information about the X-ray emission from pulsating cosmic sources to be used to obtain navigation solutions for deep-space spacecraft. In this…
The traditional celestial navigation system (CNS) is used the moon, stars, and planets as celestial guides. Then the star tracker (i.e. track one star or planet or angle between it) and star sensor (i.e. sense many star simultaneous) be…
This paper investigates an autonomous navigation method for spacecraft operating in the outer solar system, up to 250 AU from the Sun, using the parallactic shifts of nearby stars. These measurements enable estimation of the spacecraft…
Recent advances with space navigation technologies developed by NASA in space-based atomic clocks and pulsar X-ray navigation combined with past successes in autonomous navigation using optical imaging, brings to the forefront the need to…
This chapter describes the development of X-ray Navigation at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) within its astrophysics research programs. The prospects for applications emerged from early discoveries of X-ray source classes and their…
The recent flight experiments with Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (\textit{NICER}) and \textit{Insight}-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (\textit{Insight}-HXMT) have demonstrated the feasibility of X-ray pulsar-based navigation…
Pulsars have traditionally been used for research into fundamental physics and astronomy. In this paper, we investigate the expanding applications of radio pulsars in societal and industrial domains beyond their conventional scientific…
In this work, we report the in-orbit demonstration of X-ray pulsar navigation with Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT), which was launched on Jun. 15th, 2017. The new pulsar navigation method 'Significance Enhancement of…
The determination of the absolute and relative position of a spacecraft is critical for its operation, observations, data analysis, scientific studies, as well as deep space exploration in general. A spacecraft that can determine its own…
The large constellations of spacecraft planned for use in cislunar space (on the Lunar surface, in Lunar orbit, and in the vicinity of the Lunar Gateway) require new solutions for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). Here, I describe…