The concept, operation, and predicted performance of an RF tracking control system used to point the Pioneer F/G spacecraft at the Earth is described. This system employs a modified conical scanning technique called Conscan. The signal processor, the most interesting unit of the system, is described in detail to show that it approximates a maximum likelihood estimator. The dynamic behavior of the spacecraft and the stability analysis of the system are presented, demonstrating that the system performance is basically determined by the open-loop phase and amplitude errors introduced by the antenna, receiver, and signal processor. A detailed error budget shows that the phase and amplitude errors are small. Finally, closed-loop simulation and test data are presented to verify the error budget.
Conical Scanning System for Pioneer Jupiter Spacecraft
IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems ; AES-8 , 2 ; 236-245
1972-03-01
5102009 byte
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft and missions to Jupiter
NTRS | 1974
|NTRS | 1974
NTRS | 1974
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