TY - JOUR
T1 - Timing X-ray Pulsars with Application to Spacecraft Navigation
AU - Bernhardt, Mike Georg
AU - Prinz, Tobias
AU - Becker, Werner
AU - Walter, Ulrich
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - 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 e.g. an X-ray telescope could determine its position autonomoulsy via onboard analysis of X-ray pulsar signals. In order to find out which pulsars are best suited for this approach and what accuracy can be achieved, we built up a database containing the temporal emission characteristics of the 60 X-ray pulsars for which a pulsed radiation has been detected by mid 2010.
AB - 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 e.g. an X-ray telescope could determine its position autonomoulsy via onboard analysis of X-ray pulsar signals. In order to find out which pulsars are best suited for this approach and what accuracy can be achieved, we built up a database containing the temporal emission characteristics of the 60 X-ray pulsars for which a pulsed radiation has been detected by mid 2010.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053810144&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85053810144
SN - 1824-8039
VL - 108
JO - Proceedings of Science
JF - Proceedings of Science
T2 - 4th High Time Resolution Astrophysics - The Era of Extremely Large Telescopes, HTRA 2010
Y2 - 5 May 2010 through 7 May 2010
ER -