METHOD FOR DETERMINING PRECISE TIME OF APPEARANCE OF CELESTIAL PHENOMENON Russian patent published in 2004 - IPC

FIELD: space-systems engineering.

SUBSTANCE: method includes registration of celestial phenomenon onboard of spacecraft, determining moment of registration in onboard time and transferring information along telemetric route to ground-based measuring station. In this station local time is fixed in moment of launch of spacecraft on basis of standard signal of common time system. In station for processing information time delay is calculated with use of computer between passing of signal from spacecraft to ground-based measuring station in the moment of registration of celestial phenomenon. Before launch of spacecraft time of delay of passing of telemetric signal from ground-based measuring station to station for processing telemetric information and time of delay of passing of standard signal of common time system from station for storing standard time to station for processing information are determined. After each telemetric communication session with the orbit, data is dumped to computer to determine total value of signal delay formed from said times of signal passing delay and its technical delay. On basis of these data, total length of onboard time since launch of spacecraft until registration of celestial phenomenon is calculated, after which precise local time of appearance of celestial phenomenon is determined.

EFFECT: higher precision.