Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) technique: A test case of the Mars Express Phobos fly-by
- Creators
-
Duev, D. A.
Abstract
Context. The closest ever fly-by of the Martian moon Phobos, performed by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, gives a unique opportunity to sharpen and test the Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiments (PRIDE) technique in the interest of studying planet–satellite systems. Aims. The aim of this work is to demonstrate a technique of providing high precision positional and Doppler measurements of planetary spacecraft using the Mars Express spacecraft. The technique will be used in the framework of Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiments in various planetary missions, in particular in fly-by mode. Methods. We advanced a novel approach to spacecraft data processing using the techniques of Doppler and phase-referenced very long baseline interferometry spacecraft tracking. Results. We achieved, on average, mHz precision (30 μm/s at a 10 s integration time) for radial three-way Doppler estimates and sub-nanoradian precision for lateral position measurements, which in a linear measure (at a distance of 1.4 AU) corresponds to ~50 m.
Additional Information
© 2016 ESO. Received: 7 May 2016. Accepted: 31 May 2016. Published online: 06 September 2016. We would like to express our gratitude to the anonymous referee. The authors acknowledge the EC 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2008-2017) project ESPaCE (grant agreement #263466). Mars Express is a mission of the European Space Agency. Information about Mars Express telecommunication were provided by the Mars Express Project. The European VLBI Network is a joint facility of independent European, African, Asian, and North American radio astronomy institutes. Scientific results from data presented in this publication are derived from the following EVN project code: GR035. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The Australia Telescope Compact Array is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. This study made use of data collected through the AuScope initiative. AuScope Ltd is funded under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), an Australian Commonwealth Government Programme. The authors would like to thank the personnel of the participating stations. R. M. Campbell, A. Keimpema, P. Boven (JIVE), M. Pätzold (University of Cologne), B. Häusler (University of BW Munich), and D. Titov (ESA/ESTEC) provided important support to various components of the project. G. Cimó acknowledges the Horizon 2020 project ASTERICS. T. Bocanegra Bahamon acknowledges the NWO–ShAO agreement on collaboration in VLBI. J. Kania acknowledges the ASTRON/JIVE Summer Studentship programme. P. Rosenblatt is financially supported by the Belgium PRODEX program managed by the European Space Agency in collaboration with the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office.Attached Files
Published - aa28869-16.pdf
Submitted - 1606.05841v1.pdf
Files
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:6265bdfcaecb0c5fa419da75325c67c4
|
4.3 MB | Preview Download |
|
md5:d6053e20978fdf20b6ccb4fdd4530aa0
|
4.3 MB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 72361
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20161129-075322172
- 263466
- European Research Council (ERC)
- Commonwealth of Australia
- National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy
- Commonwealth of Australia
- Horizon 2020 project ASTERICS
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)
- Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
- European Space Agency (ESA)
- Created
-
2016-11-29Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field