RadioAstron as a target and as an instrument: Enhancing the Space VLBI mission's scientific output

Abstract

The accuracy of orbit determination has a strong impact on the scientific output of the Space VLBI mission RadioAstron. The aim of this work is to improve the RadioAstron orbit reconstruction by means of sophisticated dynamical modelling of its motion in combination with multi-station Doppler tracking of the RadioAstron spacecraft. The improved orbital solution is demonstrated using Doppler measurements of the RadioAstron downlink signal and by correlating VLBI observations made by RadioAstron with ground-based telescopes using the enhanced orbit determination data. Orbit determination accuracy has been significantly improved from ~ 600 m in 3D position and ~ 2 cm/s in 3D velocity to several tens of metres and mm/s, respectively.

8 pages, 8 figures. Astronomy and Astrophysics, accepted

References in corpus (3)

• RadioAstron -- a Telescope with a Size of 300 000 km: Main Parameters and First Observational Results
• Spacecraft VLBI and Doppler tracking: algorithms and implementation
• Observations and analysis of phase scintillation of spacecraft signal on the interplanetary plasma

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• Simulations of imaging the event horizon of Sagittarius A* from space
• Software correlator for Radioastron mission
• Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) of the JUICE mission
• System Design for the Event Horizon Imaging Experiment Using the PECMEO Concept
• High spectral resolution multi-tone Spacecraft Doppler tracking software: Algorithms and implementations