| 摘要 |
<p>A system and method for navigation utilizes sources of modulated celestial radiation. A spacecraft, satellite, or other vehicle (12) has one or more modulated radiation sensors (22a-22x) mounted thereto for detecting a modulated signal (14) generated by one or more pulsars or other celestial objects (16). A timer (24) measures the pulse time of arrival at a respective pulse sensor (22a22x) by comparing the pulse signal (14) with a known pulse profile, and a processor (30) calculates a timing difference between the measured pulse time of arrival at sensor (22a-22x) with a calculated pulse time of arrival at a selected reference point (100). The positions and pulse profile characteristics of the pulsars (16) are stored in a digital memory (34) and combining the calculated time difference with the known positions of pulsars (16), the navigational parameters, such as position, velocity, and attitude, for spacecraft (12) with ,respect to the selected localized reference point (100) can be calculated.</p> |
