Modeling of X-Ray Pulsar Timing Profiles and Its Impact on Position Estimation for Navigation

Pulsar Navigation is the future pathway for achieving autonomous navigation in deep space missions with uniform accuracy. The position accuracy possible to achieve by this technique is always the topic of debate. Study of efficient unbiased Phase estimation algorithms with its error bound limit is essential for navigation. This article focuses on how Pulsar timing profile impacts position accuracy via phase estimation. It models different Pulsars with varying X-ray photon flux and profiles’ shape and studies position error by statistical simulation of photon event data. It proposes the selection criteria of Pulsars for navigation with predicted accuracy.