Star Pattern Recognition and Spacecraft Attitude Determination.
Abstract
The purpose of the research activities described in this document is to research and develop a system for on-board attitude determination for satellites, achieving sub-five arc-second accuracy when such a system is interfaced with a general purpose star tracker (typical of several existing configurations). The primary motivation for this research is the exploitation of recently developed light sensitive Charge-Doupled-Devices (CCD) in the focal plane of a tracker lens. The CCD will act as a 'film' for imaging starlight and from which the attitude can be determined. The attitude determination can be performed on-board with a high degree of accuracy and high speed. A typical CCD for this application consists of about 200,000 light-sensitive elements or pixels, accurately imbedded (to 1 part in 10,000) in a microcircuit chip. The CCD can be scanned electronically and the voltage response of illuminated pixels digitized for processing by a microcomputer; corrections can be applied for image distortion based upon apriori calibration. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA090195
Entities
People
- John L. Junkins
- Thomas E. Strikwerda
Organizations
- Virginia Tech