Pulsar Signal Adaptive Surrogate Modeling

Abstract

As the number of spacecraft heading beyond Earth’s orbit increased in recent years, autonomous navigation solutions have become increasingly important. One such solution is pulsar-based navigation. The availability of pulsar signals for simulations and HIL testing is essential for the development of pulsar-based navigation. This study proposes a method to develop a surrogate model of pulsar signals based on radio pulsar observations. The selection of suitable pulsars for the radio telescope is discussed, and a series of observations are conducted. The collected data are processed using the PRESTO software, and the pulsar parameters for the model are derived. Unlike current pulsar signal models, the proposed model anticipates pulsar signal parameters to change over time. It can provide dynamic input parameters for known synthetic pulsar signal generators, resulting in a more realistic signal.