Method and apparatus for controlling spacecraft attitude with rotational star trackers
US6236939A · kind A · utility
16Cited by
3References
20Claims
0Family size
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 3, 1999 |
| Grant date | May 22, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 3, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC B)Performing Operations; Transporting
- CPC primaryB64G1/245
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
High precision spacecraft attitude determination is produced by specially positioning the spacecraft's star trackers and then filtering out measurement errors produced from star tracker electronics. In addition to the conventional azimuth and elevation controls used for star tracker pointing, the star tracker detector array is rotationally positioned about its boresight so that its pixels are traversed by the imaged star path at an angle within 20.degree. of diagonal. This forces both vertical and horizontal spatial error components in the detector plane to a high frequency range at which they can easily be filtered out in common.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.