Nebula Public Library

The knowledge bank of ESA’s R&D programmes

Deep Space Navigation with Pulsars (parallel 2)

Programme
Discovery
Programme Reference
2012-13
Contractor
Start Date
End Date
Country
Spain
Deep Space Navigation with Pulsars (parallel 2)
Description

The XNAV concept has been analysed in detail. The performances obtained from simulations have been validated successfully using real data from XMM-Newton space telescope.
The performances obtained using real data are not in line with the XNAV performances (100 m for the Crab pulsar) due to limitations in the XMM-Newton instrument operations. We have been forced to use a source much fainter than the Crab pulsar and surrounded by a background much stronger than expected.

Executive summary