Conical Scanning System for
V. Z. Viskanta, Ieee R. E. Rose · 1972
The concept,operation, and predicted performance of an RF tracking control systemusedtopoint thePioneerF/Gspacecraft at theEarthisdescribed. Thissystememploysa modifiedconical scanning technique called Conscan. Thesignal processor,themostinteresting unitofthesystem,is described indetail to show thatitapproximates a maximum likelihood estimator. Thedynamicbehavior ofthespacecraft and thestability analysis ofthesystemarepresented, demonstrating thatthesystem performance isbasically determinedby the open-loop phaseandamplitude errorsintroduced bytheantenna, receiver, andsignal processor.A detailed errorbudgetshowsthat thephaseand amplitude errors are small.Finally, closed-loop simulation andtestdataarepresented toverify theerrorbudget.