Characterization of a Prototype Radio Frequency Space Environment Path Emulator for Evaluating Spacecraft Ranging Hardware

Development of the Path Emulator for Radio Frequency Systems (PERFS) continues at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). PERFS enables realistic simulations, which require S-band Radio Frequency (RF) ranging sensors for relative navigation, by accurately emulating the dynamic environment through which the RF signals travel. Dynamic environments include eects of the medium, moving platforms, and radiated power. PERFS is an essential component of the NASA GSFC Formation Flying Testbed (FFTB) for hardware-in-the-loop testing of the Inter-spacecraft Ranging and Alarm System (IRAS) for the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. The function and performance of the first production PERFS are presented.