Formation of a Satellite Navigation System Using X-Ray Pulsars

Abstract

The ephemeris of a pulsar is stable for a long time, which allows navigation based on pulsar orientation to be vector feasible. The formation of a satellite navigation model using the orientation vector of an X-ray pulsar signal is presented in this paper. To obtain the time difference of arrival (TDOA), a new estimation method is constructed, which can measure the photon sequence of an X-ray pulsar signal and is based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT). Next, three new observation variables are constructed. The variables are satellite phase incrementation; the angle between the satellite baseline and the pulsar direction vector; and the angle between the plane spanned by three satellite baselines and the pulsar direction vector. All three variables, along with the TDOA of the X-ray pulsar signal, are utilized to determine the orbit. The position and velocity of the satellite formations are estimated by using the adaptive divided difference filter (ADDF) to eliminate nonlinearity. Several simulation cases are designed to verify the proposed method.