Abstract

The issue of navigation using binary pulsars is investigated in this paper. We show how the effect of the binary motion is incorporated in the navigation measurement equation. Necessary reference systems and time scales are introduced and the transformation between different time scales is derived. Based mainly on Damour and Deruelle’s binary model and the TEMPO2 software, the timing model resolving the time delay from emission to arrival is established with the solar system, interstellar and binary system delays included, which retains all the terms exceeding 1 ns. The navigation measurement equation is thus built and the parameters needed are listed. A comparison is made between Sheikh’s measurement equation and that in this paper. It is found that it is not necessary to introduce a fictitious SSB arrival time as Sheikh does. Near-Earth navigation for the Keplerian orbit in the case of observing one pulsar is investigated. The uncertainties of the orbit parameters are derived using the least square fitting method, which reveals that observing one pulsar enables one to navigate near-Earth spacecraft.

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