J4 ›› 2014, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1): 81-86.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1001-2400.2014.01.015

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Differential co-localization method using the X-ray pulsar

FENG Dajun;XU Luping;SONG Shibin;TIAN Xi   

  1. (School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian Univ., Xi'an  710071, China)
  • Received:2012-12-11 Online:2014-02-20 Published:2014-04-02
  • Contact: FENG Dajun E-mail:djfeng@mail.xidian.edu.cn

Abstract:

Relative navigation traditionally using inter-satellite links demands higher inter-satellite time synchronization, and has no ability of absolute positioning and timing. In this paper, we propose a relative navigation model of X-ray pulsar-based co-localization. The main satellite receives the radiation pulse signal from X-ray pulsars, and sends the arrival time and individual pulse's feature to adjacent satellites through inter-satellite links. Then by detecting the inter-satellite time difference of X-ray pulsar signals we can establish the location equation to find the inter-satellite relative position. We deduce the error correction equation of the pulse TOA prediction model and analyze the identifiability of individual pulses of the pulsar. The method proposed in this paper is less influenced by the TOA prediction model, ephemeris error, etc. It is helpful for achieving on-line self-adaption correction of the TOA prediction model and combined orbit determination of satellite constellation.

Key words: navigation, pulsars, co-localization, time of arrival, constellation