Pulsar Navigation for Crewed Exploration of the Solar System, Year 3

Future crewed and uncrewed exploration vehicles will be operating in environments far removed from the Earth and will be required to operate and navigate with minimal support from the ground. The use of millisecond x-ray pulsars as a source of timing and navigation is being demonstrated in LEO with SExTANT/NICER. The capability of these systems needs to be matured in preparation for the Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC) missions. At the very least, an x-ray navigation sensor can be used to complement optical navigation as an accurate timing source for Mars and Earth entry. This sensor has the added benefit of aiding the astrophysics (x-ray astronomy) community in getting science outside of LEO.

The Gateway station will need to be able to navigate autonomously without relying on the DSN and the ground to determine its navigation state. x-ray navigation, along with optical navigation will provide a navigation capability that will be essential for the Evolvable Mars Campaign. This technology addresses two key requirements: accurate navigation and autonomy.All future architectures for crewed exploration of the Solar System will require the vehicles such as Gateway to operate autonomously for periods of time without relying on the DSN and the ground to determine its navigation state. In particular, the delays due to one-way light time may be up to several minutes. These vehicles will be required to return the crew to Earth in case of loss of communications with the ground. A central aspect of this is the ability to navigate independent of the ground.

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