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ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA ›› 2023, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (3): 526596.doi: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2022.26596

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spacecraft positioning method based on pulsar-like X-ray beacon

Junqiu YIN1, Yunpeng LIU1,2, Xiaobin TANG1,2()   

  1. 1.Department of Nuclear Science and Technology,Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,Nanjing  210016,China
    2.Key Laboratory of Nuclear Technology Application and Radiation Protection in Astronautics,Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,Nanjing  210016,China
  • Received:2021-11-02 Revised:2021-11-22 Accepted:2022-03-28 Online:2023-02-15 Published:2022-04-06
  • Contact: Xiaobin TANG E-mail:tangxiaobin@nuaa.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Foundation of the Graduate Innovation Center, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics(xcxjh20210617)

Abstract:

Inspired by the X-ray pulsar navigation technology, this study proposes a spacecraft positioning method based on pulsar-like X-ray beacons, which means that artificial beacons are used to imitate pulsars to send high stability and high signal-to-noise ratio X-ray signals, so as to provide positioning services for target spacecraft. Firstly, the positioning principle of the X-ray beacon based on the intersection of three spheres is introduced. On the basis of analyzing the influence of the signal coverage of the X-ray beacon and the gravitational perturbation of the celestial body, the scheme of arranging the X-ray beacon at the Lagrangian point in the orbit of the planets in the solar system is proposed. Secondly, the feasibility of artificial radiation sources is analyzed and demonstrated, and the parameters of radiation sources are preliminarily optimized based on the criteria of preferred pulsars and actual pulsar characteristics. Then, in view of the needs of Earth-Mars transfer trajectory in the future, an observation equation based on the X-ray beacon is constructed based on the spacecraft dynamics model, and the navigation filtering algorithm uses the extended Kalman filter method to study the influence of X-ray beacon geometry distribution, observation error, number of beacons, clock difference and orbital error on position determination accuracy. Simulation results show that under the condition of observing three beacons at the same time and the TOA measurement accuracy is 50 ns, the proposed method can achieve an optimal estimation accuracy of spacecraft position of 152 m, and most beacon combinations can control the positioning error within 1 km. Increasing the number of observation beacons has significantly improved the combination of beacons with lower positioning accuracy. However, due to the small inclination of the orbits between the planets in the solar system, the positioning error of the geothermal transfer orbiting spacecraft is still in the order of 100 m in simultaneous observation of 5 beacons. According to the actual needs of spacecraft in the field of deep space exploration, the positioning method proposed is expected to become an important supplement to the navigation positioning of spacecraft in deep space exploration.

Key words: X-ray pulsar navigation, X-ray beacon, Lagrange point, extended Kalman filtering, Earth-Mars transfer trajectory

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