Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) technique: A test case of the Mars Express Phobos Flyby. II. Doppler tracking: Formulation of observed and computed values, and noise budget
Abstract
Context. Closed-loop Doppler data obtained by deep space tracking networks, such as the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) and the ESA tracking station network (Estrack), are routinely used for navigation and science applications. By shadow tracking the spacecraft signal, Earth-based radio telescopes involved in the Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) can provide open-loop Doppler tracking data only when the dedicated deep space tracking facilities are operating in closed-loop mode. Aims. We explain the data processing pipeline in detail and discuss the capabilities of the technique and its potential applications in planetary science. Methods. We provide the formulation of the observed and computed values of the Doppler data in PRIDE tracking of spacecraft and demonstrate the quality of the results using an experiment with the ESA Mars Express spacecraft as a test case. Results. We find that the Doppler residuals and the corresponding noise budget of the open-loop Doppler detections obtained with the PRIDE stations compare to the closed-loop Doppler detections obtained with dedicated deep space tracking facilities.
Additional Information
© 2018 ESO. Article published by EDP Sciences. Received 6 July 2017; Accepted 7 September 2017; Published online 08 January 2018. The EVN is a joint facility of European, Chinese, South African, and other radio astronomy institutes funded by their national research councils. 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. T. Bocanegra Bahamon acknowledges the NWO–ShAO agreement on collaboration in VLBI. G. Cimó acknowledges the EC FP7 project ESPaCE (grant agreement 263466). P. Rosenblatt is financially supported by the Belgian PRODEX program managed by the European Space Agency in collaboration with the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. We express gratitude to M. Pätzold (MEX MaRS PI) and B. Häusler for coordination of MaRS and PRIDE tracking during the MEX/Phobos flyby and a number of valuable comments on the manuscript of the current paper. Mars Express is a mission of the European Space Agency. The MEX a priori orbit, Estrack and DSN tracking stations transmission frequencies, and the cyclogram of events were supplied by the Mars Express project. The authors would like to thank the personnel of the participating stations. R.M. Campbell, A. Keimpema, P. Boven (JIVE), O. Witasse (ESA/ESTEC), and D. Titov (ESA/ESTEC) provided important support to various components of the project. The authors are grateful to the anonymous referee for useful comments and suggestions.Attached Files
Published - aa31524-17.pdf
Submitted - 1709.03419.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 84532
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180125-152021033
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)
- Shanghai Astronomical Observatory
- 263466
- European Research Council (ERC)
- European Space Agency (ESA)
- Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO)
- Created
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2018-01-30Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field