DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND TEST OF A FEASIBILITYMODEL RELATIVE STAR-ANGLE COMPARATOR

Abstract

A new and unique aerospace vehicle attitude system, designed around the Star-pair Angle Comparator, is described. The system basic ally measures the direction to any three of the 50 brightest stars, computes the angles between them and processes the information to provide a two-star identification and a highly accurate spatial attitude determination. System operation and performance are discussed along with a detail description of the feasibility model subsystems and their components. It is shown that the optical-electrical subsystems provide an equivalent startracker accuracy within ten arc seconds. The overall system accuracy, including scanner, gimballing and electronics, exceeds contractual requirements by a factor of two and is 20 arc seconds, demonstrated over-all system error excluding computation error.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1963
Accession Number
AD0430013

Entities

People

  • G. Gulbenkian
  • J. Abate
  • P. Gevas

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Aerospace Craft
  • Air Force
  • Comparators
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Electronics
  • Energy
  • Energy Transfer
  • Government Procurement
  • Guidance
  • Instrumentation
  • Measurement
  • Navigation
  • Spacecraft
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Geodesy
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Software Engineering

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Space
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers