Session
Technical Session X: The Technology Frontier-- Advanced Technologies, Subsystems, and components for Small Satellites: Section I
Abstract
General industry research on spacecraft attitude determination and control components is focused on increasing accuracy to the exclusion of all else. This is contrary to the clear requirement for decreased complexity, mass, and power consumption to fit the needs of small, maneuverable, low-cost spacecraft. To address this need, AeroAstro and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Space Systems Laboratory are developing a coarse star tracker, which strikes an appropriate balance between accuracy, power consumption, mass and cost. The coarse star tracker is targeted for small spacecraft, addressing requirements of a wide range of applications, including orbit transfer and rendezvous missions. This market is presently inadequately served, because higher accuracy star trackers simply do not fit within the mass, power, and cost constraints of small spacecraft missions. The design described herein is a 300-gram unit that consumes less than 1 Watt of power. With a pointing accuracy of better than 100 arc-seconds, the star tracker will enable a cost-effective three-axis stabilized spacecraft to attain pointing accuracies to better than 0.25 degree, more than adequate for most low-earth orbit (LEO) missions. The team is exploiting acquisition and tracking algorithm simplification and is developing ways to further reduce mass, power consumption, complexity and cost.
Presentation Slides
Lightweight, Low-Power Coarse Star Tracker
General industry research on spacecraft attitude determination and control components is focused on increasing accuracy to the exclusion of all else. This is contrary to the clear requirement for decreased complexity, mass, and power consumption to fit the needs of small, maneuverable, low-cost spacecraft. To address this need, AeroAstro and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Space Systems Laboratory are developing a coarse star tracker, which strikes an appropriate balance between accuracy, power consumption, mass and cost. The coarse star tracker is targeted for small spacecraft, addressing requirements of a wide range of applications, including orbit transfer and rendezvous missions. This market is presently inadequately served, because higher accuracy star trackers simply do not fit within the mass, power, and cost constraints of small spacecraft missions. The design described herein is a 300-gram unit that consumes less than 1 Watt of power. With a pointing accuracy of better than 100 arc-seconds, the star tracker will enable a cost-effective three-axis stabilized spacecraft to attain pointing accuracies to better than 0.25 degree, more than adequate for most low-earth orbit (LEO) missions. The team is exploiting acquisition and tracking algorithm simplification and is developing ways to further reduce mass, power consumption, complexity and cost.
