Improvements in ground-based optical astrometry will eventually be required for navigation of interplanetary spacecraft when these spacecraft communicate at optical wavelengths. Although such spacecraft may be some years off, preliminary versions of the astrometric technology can also be used to obtain navigational improvements for the Galileo and Cassini missions. This article describes a technology-development and observational program to accomplish this, including a cooperative effort with U.S. Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station. For Galileo, Earth-based astrometry of Jupiter's Galilean satellites may improve their ephemeris accuracy by a factor of 3 to 6. This would reduce the requirements for onboard optical navigation pictures, so that more of the data transmission capability (currently limited by high-gain antenna deployment problems) can be used for science data. Also, observations of European Space Agency (ESA) Hipparcos stars with asteroid 243 Ida may provide significantly improved navigation accuracy for a planned August 1993 Galileo spacecraft encounter.
Deep-Space Navigation Applications of Improved Ground-Based Optical Astrometry
1992
10 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Astronautics , Space Launch Vehicles & Support Equipment , Astrometry , Deep space network , Interplanetary navigation , Interplanetary spacecraft , Optical tracking , Spacecraft tracking , Onboard equipment , Cassini mission , Charge coupled devices , Galileo project , Galileo spacecraft , Position errors
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