Related papers: Timing X-ray Pulsars with Application to Spacecraf…
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.…
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…
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…
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 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…
The X-ray Navigation and Autonomous position Verification (XNAV) is tested which use the Crab pulsar under the Space Test Program that use starlight refraction. It provide the way that the spacecraft could autonomously determine its…
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…
A general approach to the problem of positioning by means of pulsars or other pulsating sources located at infinity is described. The counting of the pulses for a set of different sources whose positions in the sky and periods are assumed…
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…
Detecting the X-ray radialization of pulsars and obtaining the photons' time of arrival are the foundation steps in autonomous navigation via X-ray pulsar measurement. The precision of a pulse' s time of arrival is mainly decided by the…
The stable oscillations of pulsating stars can serve as accurate timepieces, which may be monitored for the influence of exoplanets. An external companion gravitationally tugs the host star, causing periodic changes in pulsation arrival…
The Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) is a technology demonstration enhancement to the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2017 and will be hosted…
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…
For pulsar projects it is often necessary to predict the pulse phase in advance, for example, when preparing for new observations. Interpolation of the pulse phase between existing measurements is also often required, for example, when…
Pulsar timing, i.e. the analysis of the arrival times of pulses from a pulsar, is a powerful tool in modern astrophysics. It allows us to measure the time delays of an electromagnetic signal caused by a number of physical processes as the…
Pulsar timing is a foundational part of pulsar research to triage the most interesting systems and to characterise properties (rotational or otherwise) of the population of these extreme objects. Due to the efficiency of a number of…
Starting from the description of space-time as a curved four-dimensional manifold, null Gaussian coordinates systems as appropriate for relativistic positioning will be discussed. Different approaches and strategies will be reviewed,…
In order to show the principle viability of a recently proposed relativistic positioning method based on the use of pulsed signals from sources at infinity, we present an application example reconstructing the world-line of an idealized…
Pulsar Timing Arrays use a set of millisecond pulsars in an attempt to directly detect nanohertz gravitational waves. For this purpose, high precision timing of the pulsars is essential and ultimately a precision of the order of ~100 ns is…