Doppler-delay Calibration of Uplink Arrays Via Far-field Moon-Bounce Power Mazimization
Uplink arrays have the potential to greatly increase NASAs deep-space command and communications capabilities,and provide greater reach during spacecraft emergencies. However,due to long round-trip light times, it is not always practical to phase up and track the carrier phase of each antenna element using real-time measurements at the spacecraft. This article describes a method for utilizing the Moon as a natural far-field reflector for calibrating uplink arrays, by extending well-known Doppler-delay radar imaging techniques to an array of transmitting antennas, and processing the received signals to extract the calibration information. A small, highly reflective feature on the moon is selected as the calibration target, and the phase-vector corresponding to maximum reflected power from the target selected. In this article, the theoretical basis of Moon-Bounce Uplink Array calibration is presented, and experimental results obtained with arrays of up to three 34 m antennas of the Deep Space Network are described.
V.Vilnrotter D.Lee R.Mukai T.Cornish P.Tsao
JPL,Pasadena,California
国际会议
The 11th International Space Conference of Pacific-basin Societies(第11届环太平洋国际航天会议)
北京
英文
370-377
2007-05-16（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）