| 摘要 |
A system and method for navigation utilizing sources of pulsed celestial radiation are provided. A spacecraft, satellite, or other vehicle ( 12 ) has a pulse sensor ( 22 ) mounted thereto for detecting signal pulses ( 14 ) generated by a plurality of pulsars or other celestial objects ( 16 ). The detected signal pulses ( 14 ) are synchronously averaged at the known period of the pulsar or other celestial object ( 16 ) with respect to a timer ( 24 ). Timer ( 24 ) measures the pulse time of arrival at the pulse sensor ( 22 ) by comparing the pulse signal ( 14 ) with a pulse shape template ( 52 ), and a processing means ( 30 ) calculates the offset time between the measured pulse time of arrival at sensor ( 22 ) with a calculated pulse time of arrival at the solar system barycenter (SSBC). The positions and pulse profile characteristics of the pulsars ( 16 ) are stored in a digital memory ( 34 ) and combining the calculated time offset with the known positions of pulsars ( 16 ), the navigational position, velocity, attitude and time of spacecraft ( 12 ) with respect to the SSBC can be calculated.
|
