Juno Radio Open Loop Measurement Experiment based on China’s Deep Space Stations

Abstract

The construction of China’s deep space network supports China’s deep space missions，such as explorations of Lunar，Mars，Small planets，Jupiter，and etc. To validate China’s deep space network performance and obtain the radio measurement raw data，dozens of radio open loop measurement experiments of Juno which is one of Jupiter’s probe on orbit were accomplished. These open loop measurement experiments are the first time conducted by the China’s deep space stations tracking a in-orbit probe in Earth-Jupiter distance. VLBI terminate sampling and recording facilities were utilized to record Juno’s raw carrier signal，which was processed to extract Doppler frequency between Juno and the deep space station. In this paper，the combining method of Fast Fourier transform，Chirp Z transform and signal local reconstruction was utilized to obtain Juno’s Doppler frequency. The results show that Juno’s open loop Doppler frequency is at the level of 10 μHz，which effectively validated the method of deep space open loop measurement and provide valuable reference for China’s future deep space missions.

Keywords

China’s deep space station / Jupiter / Juno / open loop measurement / carrier frequency