Talk about X-ray pulsar navigation

doi:10.11947/j.AGCS.2025.20240209

Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (2): 207-212.doi: 10.11947/j.AGCS.2025.20240209

• Review •

Talk about X-ray pulsar navigation

Ziqing WEI¹^,²^,³()

^1.State Key Laboratory of Spatial Datum, Xi'an 710054, China
^2.Xi'an Research Institute of Surveying and Mapping, Xi'an 710054, China
^3.Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China

Received:2024-05-17 Published:2025-03-11
About author:WEI Ziqing (1937—), male, researcher, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, majors in geodetic coordinate system, geodetic boundary value problem and GNSS.　E-mail: ziqingw@sina.com
Supported by:
The National Natural Science Foundation of China(42327802)

Abstract

Abstract:

X-ray pulsar navigation(XNAV) is defined in this paper as deriving the 3D position of spacecraft by using pulse arrival time observations. When using priori knowledge of spacecraft orbits, the XNAV essentially becomes an orbital improvement. Observing 3 or 4 pulsars can be performed either simultaneously or sequentially in proper order; observation instrument can be either a grazing reflective telescope or a normal refractive one. The latter may have a shorter focal length and would be suitable to miniaturization and lightweight of XNAV equipment. The pulsar ephemeris is an indispensable supporting condition, which is provided today by the ground-based radio telescope network and will be generated in the future by the spacecraft itself. The accuracy of XNAV is about 5 km currently, and be expected to reach 1 km in the near future and can possibly achieve the goal of 100 m level in the long term. The XNAV can be used at present in deep space, and may probably be expanded to near-Earth space in the future.

Key words: X-ray pulsar navigation, refractive X-ray pulsar telescope, spacecraft navigation, pulsar ephemeris

CLC Number:

P225.6

Ziqing WEI. Talk about X-ray pulsar navigation[J]. Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica, 2025, 54(2): 207-212.

Figures/Tables 4

References 20

[1]	DOWNS G S. Interplanetary navigation using pulsating radio sources[R]. Pasadena: JET Propulsion Laboratory, 1974.
[2]	CHESTER T J, BUTMAN S A. Navigation using X-ray pulsars[R]. [S. l.]: TDA Progress, 1981.
[3]	SHEIKH S I. The use of variable celestial X-ray sources for spacecraft navigation[D]. Maryland: University of Maryland, 2005.
[4]	KAZMIERCZAK J. NASA team first to demonstrate X-ray navigation in space[EB/OL]. [2024-02-11]. https://nasa.gov/centers-and-facillities/goddard/nasa-team-first-to-demonstrate-x-ray-navigation-in-space.
[5]	PAYNE J H. X-ray pulsar navigation instrument performance and scale analysis[D]. Atlanta: Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019.
[6]	SHEMAR S, FRASER G, HEIL L, et al. Towards practical autonomous deep-space navigation using X-ray pulsar timing[J]. Experimental Astronomy, 2016, 42(2): 101-138.
[7]	刘林, 胡松洁, 曹建峰, 等. 航天器定轨理论与应用[M]. 北京: 电子工业出版社, 2022.
	LIU Lin, HU Songjie, CAO Jianfeng, et al. Theory and application of spacecraft orbit determination[M]. Beijing: Electronic Industry Press, 2022.
[8]	刘林. 卫星轨道力学算法[M]. 南京: 南京大学出版社, 2019.
	LIU Lin. Satellite orbit mechanics algorithm[M]. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2019.
[9]	ASCHENBACH B. X-ray telescope[J]. Reports on Progress in Physics, 1985, 48: 579-629.
[10]	GASKIN J A, SWARTZ D A. Lynx X-ray observatory: an overview[J]. Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 2019, 5(2): 021001.
[11]	REID P B. X-ray telescopes[M]//The encyclopedia of astronomy and astrophysics. London: Nature Publishing Group, 2004.
[12]	SNIGIREV A, KOHN V, SNIGIREVA I, et al. A compound refractive lens for focusing high-energy X-rays[J]. Nature, 1996, 384(6604): 49-51.
[13]	SCHROER C, TUEMMLER J, LENGELER B, et al. Compound refractive lenses: high quality imaging optics for the XFEL[C]//Proceedings of 2001 International Society of Optical Engineering. San Diego: [s. n.], 2000.
[14]	MI Wujun, NILLIUS P, PEARCE M, et al. A stacked prism lens concept for next-generation hard X-ray telescopes[J]. Nature Astronomy, 2019, 3(9): 867-872.
[15]	NILLIUS P. Geometric scattering in prism-array lenses for hard X-rays: measurements, simulations and models[C]//Proceedings of the 21st International Congress X-ray Optics and Microanalysis. Campinas: AIP, 2012.
[16]	CEDERSTRÖM B, RIBBING C, LUNDQVIST M. Generalized prism-array lenses for hard X-rays[J]. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 2005, 12(3): 340-344.
[17]	LUO Jing, RANSOM S, DEMOREST P, et al. PINT: a modern software package for pulsar timing[J]. The Astrophysical Journal, 2021, 911(1): 45.
[18]	CHANDLER J F. Pulsars and solar-system ephemerides[J]. Symposium-International Astronomical Union, 1996, 172: 105-112.
[19]	MANCHESTER R. Pulsar timing arrays and their applications[J]. AIP Conference Proceedings, 2011, 1357(1): 65-72.
[20]	MCLAUGHLIN M. Pulsar timing arrays[C]//Proceedings of 2015 International Astronomical Union General Assembly. Nice: IAV, 2015.

望远镜	焦距/m	有效面积/m²（1Kev，6Kev）	在轴角分辨率（HPD）/（″）	10'半径离轴角分辨率（HPD）/（″）
XMM-Newton	7.5	0.45，0.1	15.0	~18
Chandra	10	0.03 0.08，	0.5	~8
ATHENA	12	1.4，0.25	5.0	~5.7
LYNX（设计）	10	2，0.2	0.5	~1

Talk about X-ray pulsar navigation

RichHTML

PDF

Knowledge

Abstract

Cite this article

share this article

Figures/Tables 4

References 20

Related Articles 0

Recommended Articles

Metrics

Comments