METHOD OF NAVIGATING SPACECRAFT BASED ON CELESTIAL PERIODIC RADIATION SOURCES Russian patent published in 2012 - IPC G01C21/24 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: method of navigating spacecraft based on pulsed radiation of pulsars involves determination of a set of intervals of pulses from pulsars independently on on-board and ground-based telescope on a coordinated epoch of observations on set dates, which are then used to correct values of the observed period on the ground-based telescope and deviation of the observed period from the average value on the on-board telescope; the obtained values of the observed period are used to calculate deviation of intervals of pulses from pulsars, observed on the on-board and ground-based telescopes; the difference between deviation of intervals on the on-board and ground-based telescopes is used to determine the radius vector of the true location of the spacecraft relative the calculated trajectory point and vector values of velocity and acceleration of the spacecraft, from which a decision to perform an adjustment manoeuvre to approach the true and calculated trajectory of the spacecraft is made. By associating the location of the spacecraft with the observed intervals of highly stable period radiation of pulsars, high accuracy of determining the vector of navigation state and control of results of performing adjustment manoeuvres of the spacecraft is achieved.

EFFECT: high efficiency of measuring navigation parameters, high accuracy of determining the vector of the current state and controlling results of performing adjustment manoeuvres of the spacecraft based on the observed periodic pulsed radiation from pulsars.

6 cl, 5 dwg