An orbit determination algorithm for spacecrafts navigated by a single X-Ray pulsar

Abstract

Commonly, X-ray Pulsar Navigation should observe three pulsars to determine the position of the detector. It leads to at least three detectors should be equipped. In this paper, an initial orbit determination algorithm using one detector to observe a single X-ray pulsar is presented in this paper. The algorithm combines the two-body motion equations and least squares iterative method to obtain initial orbits of spacecrafts, in which the phase comparison method of weighted FFT is used to process simulation signal of an X-ray pulsar. Then, the feasibility of the orbit determination algorithm and the phase comparison method are verified on Matlab environment. As expected, the results show that the orbit determination algorithm is feasible and has a good accuracy. As well, it can be widely used on earth and other planets’ orbits.