Space vehicle time considering special relativity

A method performed by a first space vehicle of a constellation of space vehicles, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a transceiver, space vehicle data including a time delta or ephemeris data from a second space vehicle of the constellation;
• altering, by processing circuitry, the space vehicle data based on a ratio that includes relative speeds of the first space vehicle and the second space vehicle and speed of light, resulting in special relativity data;
• estimating, by a Kalman filter and based on the special relativity data, an actual time delta or actual ephemeris data;
• and
• adjusting an internal clock time or ephemeris data of the first space vehicle based on the actual time delta or the actual ephemeris data, respectively, resulting in adjusted internal clock time or adjusted ephemeris data;
• and
• communicating, by the transceiver, the adjusted internal clock time or the adjusted ephemeris data to another space vehicle in the constellation of space vehicles.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a first space vehicle of a constellation of space vehicles, causes the processing circuitry to perform operations of special relativity compensation, the operations comprising:

• receiving space vehicle data including a time delta or ephemeris data from a second space vehicle of the constellation;
• altering the space vehicle data based on a ratio that includes relative speeds of the first space vehicle and the second space vehicle and speed of light, resulting in special relativity data;
• estimating, by a Kalman filter and based on the special relativity data, an actual time delta or actual ephemeris data;
• adjusting an internal clock time or ephemeris data of the first space vehicle based on the actual time delta or the actual ephemeris data, respectively, resulting in adjusted internal clock time or adjusted ephemeris data;
• and
• communicating the adjusted internal clock time or the adjusted ephemeris data to another space vehicle in the constellation of space vehicles.