| Name: | Anuraag Arya |
| Affiliation: | IIT Bombay |
| Conference ID: | ASI2025_222 |
| Title: | Deep space navigation with X-ray pulsars |
| Authors: | Anuraag Arya 1, Ashwjeet Singh 1, Suchet Gopal 1, Varun Bhalerao 1 |
| Authors Affiliation: | 1 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai - 400076, India |
| Mode of Presentation: | Oral |
| Abstract Category: | Facilities, Technologies and Data science |
| Abstract: | Deep space navigation is essential for coordinating space satellites and future missions, including sending probes beyond the solar system. Methods like radar ranging can give accurate measurements of the radial coordinate of a spacecraft, but are uncertain on other axes. This method also becomes problematic for spacecraft that are far from Earth. One solution to this limitation which has often been discussed in literature is to use pulsars as reference clocks to calculate the inertial position of the satellite on-board, removing any dependence on an Earth-origin signal. X-ray pulsars are ideal for this as high energy detectors can be more compact than radio antennas.
To test and demonstrate the principle, we propose a small payload utilizing X-ray detectors to observe millisecond pulsars for faster and more accurate navigation in deep space. The payload will have a small form factor (1.5U) and will be equipped with two Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detectors, covering an energy range of 20 – 250 keV. Data will be procured using an Artix Cmod-7 FPGA, which will also undertake basic processing. In addition, we will also incorporate a Coded Aperture Mask (CAM) to measure the attitude of the payload. By tracking pulse time delays relative to the Solar System Barycentre (SSB) by analyzing phase shifts, we can estimate the position of CubeSat with respect to SSB. I will describe the payload in detail and show laboratory results of test and calibration. In the future, we will seek launch opportunities to integrate this payload into a larger satellite, or configure it as a stand-alone CubeSat mission.
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