Jiang Dong. The Principle and Application of Maser Navigation
Natural Sciences / Astronomy / Astrometry
Submitted on: Apr 03, 2012, 04:45:34
Description: The traditional celestial navigation system (CNS) is used the moon, stars, and planets as celestial guides. Then the star tracker (i.e. track one star or planet or angle between it) and star sensor (i.e. sense many star simultaneous) be used to determine the attitude of the spacecraft. Pulsar navigation also be introduced to CNS. Maser is another interested celestial in radio astronomy which has strong flux density as spectral line. Now we analysis the principle of maser navigation which base on measuring Doppler shift frequency spectra and the feasibility that use the exist instrument. We give the navigation equations of maser-based navigation system and discuss the integrated navigation use maser, then give the perspective in the Milky Way and the intergalatic. Our analysis show that use one meter antenna can achieve tens of meters position accuracy which better than today's star sensor.