Star trackers for attitude determination
- 1 June 1995
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine
- Vol. 10 (6), 10-16
- https://doi.org/10.1109/62.387971
Abstract
One problem comes to all spacecrafts using vector information. That is the problem of determining the attitude. This paper describes how the area of attitude determination instruments has evolved from simple pointing devices into the latest technology, which determines the attitude by utilizing a CCD camera and a powerful microcomputer. The instruments are called star trackers and they are capable of determining the attitude with an accuracy better than 1 arcsecond. The concept of the star tracker is explained. The obtainable accuracy is calculated, the numbers of stars to be included in the star catalogue are discussed and the acquisition of the initial attitude is explained. Finally the commercial market for star trackers is discussed.<>Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- CCD star tracker experience: key results from Astro 1 flightPublished by SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng ,1993
- Pattern recognition of star constellations for spacecraft applicationsIEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, 1993