Publication Date:
2019-07-20
Description:
Spacecraft carrying optical communication lasers can be treated as artificial stars, whose relative astrometry to Gaia reference stars provides spacecraft positions in the plane-of-sky for optical navigation. To be comparable to current Deep Space Network delta-Differential One-way Ranging measurements, thus sufficient for navigation, nanoradian optical astrometry is required. Here we describe our error budget, techniques for achieving nanoradian level ground-base astrometry, and preliminary results from a 1 m telescope. We discuss also how these spacecraft may serve as artificial reference stars for adaptive optics, high precision astrometry to detect exoplanets, and tying reference frames defined by radio and optical measurements.
Keywords:
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration; Lasers and Masers
Type:
JPL-CL-16-3153
,
SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2016; Jun 26, 2016 - Jul 01, 2016; Edinburgh, Scotland; United Kingdom
Format:
text
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