Improved Spacecraft Tracking and Navigation Using a Portable Radio Science Receiver Melissa Soriano, Christopher Jacobs, Juan Lobo Garcia, Cristina García-Miró Robert Navarro, Charles Naudet, INTA/NASA Stephen Rogstad, Leslie White, Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex Susan Finley, Charles Goodhart, Madrid, Spain Elliott Sigman, Joseph Trinh Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mattia Mercolino, Roberto Maddè California Institute of Technology European Space Agency Pasadena, CA 91109 European Space Operations Center 818-393-7632 Darmstadt, Germany
[email protected] Abstract— The Portable Radio Science Receiver (PRSR) is a 1. INTRODUCTION suitcase-sized open-loop digital receiver designed to be small and easy to transport so that it can be deployed quickly and Interplanetary navigation uses four primary types of easily anywhere in the world. The PRSR digitizes, down- measurements for orbit determination: Range, Doppler, converts, and filters using custom hardware, firmware, and Delta Differential One-way Range, and onboard optical. software. Up to 16 channels can be independently configured Range is a measurement of the distance to the spacecraft and recorded with a total data rate of up to 256 Mbps. The and is obtained using the difference in time between when a design and implementation of the system's hardware, signal is sent and received. Doppler is a measurement of the firmware, and software is described. To minimize costs and time to deployment, our design leveraged elements of the radial velocity of the spacecraft using the Doppler shift of hardware, firmware, and software designs from the existing the signal [1]. Delta Differential One-Way (DOR) range is full-sized operational (non-portable) Radio Science Receivers a measurement of the angular position and velocity of the (RSR) and Wideband VLBI Science Receivers (WVSR), which spacecraft using station-differenced one-way range [2].