Isro has employed a new method for the first time to locate the Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) — currently over 65 lakh km away from earth.
According to Isro, the pointing direction of the ground station antenna directly gives the angular location of the spacecraft. "However, the accuracy one can achieve using this method is insufficient for interplanetary missions with stringent navigation requirements," Isro said in a statement.
The statement said that is why a new method was used on Tuesday. This involves receiving MOM's radio signals at two widely separated ground stations at different instances. The system is called "Delta differential one way ranging". The results were very satisfactory, Isro said.
Besides the Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore, Nasa's communication facilities at Goldstone in California, Madrid and Canberra are also supporting MOM.
According to Isro, the pointing direction of the ground station antenna directly gives the angular location of the spacecraft. "However, the accuracy one can achieve using this method is insufficient for interplanetary missions with stringent navigation requirements," Isro said in a statement.
The statement said that is why a new method was used on Tuesday. This involves receiving MOM's radio signals at two widely separated ground stations at different instances. The system is called "Delta differential one way ranging". The results were very satisfactory, Isro said.
Besides the Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore, Nasa's communication facilities at Goldstone in California, Madrid and Canberra are also supporting MOM.
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