COMPASS: VLBI Beacons In Support of Lunar Science and Exploration
T. M. Eubanks
The large constellations of spacecraft planned for use in cislunar space (on the Lunar surface, in Lunar orbit, and in the vicinity of the Lunar Gateway) require new solutions for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). Here, I describe COMPASS (Combined Observational Methods for Positional Awareness in the Solar System), a spacecraft navigation system to provide cost-effective techniques for the positioning of large numbers of spacecraft in cislunar space. COMPASS will use beacons that emit coherent ultra-wideband signals designed to be interoperable with existing and future Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) networks. Using differential VLBI, COMPASS will provide rapid determination of the interferometric phase delay with picosecond level accuracy during routine VLBI observing sessions. Multi-baseline phase-referenced COMPASS-VLBI observations with simultaneous calibrator observations should thus enable sub-meter accuracy transverse positioning and meter level lunar orbit determination using with small femtospacecraft beacons and a few seconds of observation per position determination.
Comments: Paper accepted for publication in the proceedings of the XXXIII General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (GASS) of the International Union of Radio Science (Union Radio Scientifique Internationale-URSI)
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2005.09642 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2005.09642v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
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From: T. Marshall Eubanks Mr
[v1] Mon, 18 May 2020 23:01:06 UTC (215 KB)
