SEXTANT X-ray Pulsar Navigation demonstration: Flight system and test results

Winternitz, Luke; Mitchell, Jason W.; Hassouneh, Munther A.; Valdez, Jennifer; Price, Samuel R.; Semper, Sean R.; Yu, Wayne H.; Ray, Paul S.; Wood, K. S.; Arzoumanian, Zaven; Gendreau, Keith C.

doi:10.1109/aero.2016.7500838

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…SEXTANT will, for the first time, demonstrate real-time, on-board Xray pulsar-based navigation (XNAV), representing a significant milestone in the quest to establish a GPS-like navigation capability available throughout our Solar System and beyond. [7][8][9] XNAV is the concept of navigating in space using millisecond pulsars (MSPs), distributed across the Galaxy, as navigational beacons. Some MSPs rotate so regularly that they rival terrestrial atomic clocks in their stability, similar to the clocks flown in each GPS satellite.…”

Section: Sextantmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second critical element of SEXTANT is its ground system. 9 In addition to commanding, data telemetry, and performance monitoring, the key function of the SEXTANT ground system is to maintain the "pulsar almanac," consisting of MSP timing models, pulse shape templates, and count rate models. The almanac is updated by periodically incorporating data from MSP observations using radio telescopes, other X-ray telescopes, and the NICER XTI itself (once operational).…”

Section: Sextantmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER): design and development

et al. 2016

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During 2014 and 2015, NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission proceeded successfully through Phase C, Design and Development. An X-ray (0.2-12 keV) astrophysics payload destined for the International Space Station, NICER is manifested for launch in early 2017 on the Commercial Resupply Services SpaceX-11 flight. Its scientific objectives are to investigate the internal structure, dynamics, and energetics of neutron stars, the densest objects in the universe. During Phase C, flight components including optics, detectors, the optical bench, pointing actuators, electronics, and others were subjected to environmental testing and integrated to form the flight payload. A custom-built facility was used to co-align and integrate the X-ray "concentrator" optics and silicon-drift detectors. Ground calibration provided robust performance measures of the optical (at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center) and detector (at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) subsystems, while comprehensive functional tests prior to payload-level environmental testing met all instrument performance requirements. We describe here the implementation of NICER's major subsystems, summarize their performance and calibration, and outline the component-level testing that was successfully applied.

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Section: Sextantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sextantmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER): design and development

et al. 2016

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“…The SEXTANT team has developed an extensive suite of XNAV simulation tools whose capabilities are described in detail in previous publications [8,10,11]. These capabilities include the ability to replay NICER/SEXTANT flight telemetry through the SEXTANT XFSW application running on a ground computer.…”

Section: Navigation Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this section, we describe results from a SEXTANT ground experiment where the Crab pulsar (PSR B0531+21) was processed using a binned approach to phase estimation as described in [11]. In this experiment, X-ray event data from NICER/SEXTANT flight telemetry were collected over a period from 2017 DOYs 318-322 and replayed through the XFSW application on the ground.…”

Section: A Crab Pulsar Ground Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

SEXTANT X-ray Pulsar Navigation Demonstration: Additional On-Orbit Results

Winternitz

Mitchell

Hassouneh

et al. 2018

2018 SpaceOps Conference

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The Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) is a technology demonstration enhancement to the Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission, a NASA Astrophysics Explorer Mission of Opportunity to the International Space Station, launched in June of 2017. In late 2017, SEX-TANT successfully completed a first demonstration of in-space and autonomous X-ray pulsar navigation (XNAV). This form of navigation relies on processing faint signals from millisecond pulsars-rapidly rotating neutron stars that appear to pulsate in the X-ray band-and could potentially provide a GPS-like navigation capability applicable throughout the solar-system and beyond. In this work, we briefly review prior SEXTANT results and then present new results focusing on: making use of the high-flux but rotationally unstable Crab pulsar, and using XNAV to estimate position, velocity, and time in the presence of an imperfect local clock.

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“…The European Space agency is also interested in the concept (e.g. Sala et al 2004), as well as the American NASA Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) mission, which also plans to demonstrate real-time on-board X-ray Pulsar Navigation (Winternitz et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pulsar positioning system: a quest for evidence of extraterrestrial engineering

Vidal

2017

International Journal of Astrobiology

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Pulsars have at least two impressive applications. First, they can be used as highly accurate clocks, comparable in stability to atomic clocks; secondly, a small subset of pulsars, millisecond X-ray pulsars, provide all the necessary ingredients for a passive galactic positioning system. This is known in astronautics as X-ray pulsar-based navigation (XNAV). XNAV is comparable to GPS, except that it operates on a galactic scale. I propose a SETI-XNAV research program to test the hypothesis that this pulsar positioning system might be an instance of galactic-scale engineering by extraterrestrial beings (section 4). The paper starts by exposing the basics of pulsar navigation (section 2), continues with a critique of the rejection of the extraterrestrial hypothesis when pulsars were first discovered (section 3). The core section 4 proposes lines of inquiry for SETI-XNAV, related to: the pulsar distribution and power in the galaxy; their population; their evolution; possible pulse synchronizations; pulsar usability when navigating near the speed of light; decoding galactic coordinates; directed panspermia; and information content in pulses. Even if pulsars are natural, they are likely to be used as standards by ETIs in the galaxy (section 5). I discuss possible objections and potential benefits for humanity, whether the research program succeeds or not (section 6).

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SEXTANT X-ray Pulsar Navigation demonstration: Flight system and test results

Cited by 19 publications

References 5 publications

The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER): design and development

The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER): design and development

SEXTANT X-ray Pulsar Navigation Demonstration: Additional On-Orbit Results

Pulsar positioning system: a quest for evidence of extraterrestrial engineering

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