Session
Technical Session III: Year in Review I
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
Precise attitude control is a key factor of many payloads with high ground resolutions, small fields of view or narrow beams such as an optical data downlink. The small satellite Flying Laptop (FLP), launched in July 2017, was developed by graduate and undergraduate students at the Institute of Space Systems of the University of Stuttgart with support by the space industry and research institutions. The satellite is three-axis stabilized with reaction wheels as main actuators. FLP is equipped with the OSIRIS optical data downlink which was built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). As this instrument is body mounted on an optical bench, the attitude determination and control system (ACS) is required to point the whole satellite in the direction of the ground station with a high pointing accuracy of 150 arcseconds. At the time of launch the ACS did not reach this precision. This paper describes how the attitude determination and control were improved to achieve the required performance.
The improvements can be divided into two parts. The first part includes the enhancement of on-board sensor processing and attitude control. In the second part, in-orbit data were utilized to increase the accuracy of parameters which are used to control the spacecraft. The first part includes the addition of a Kalman filter, an improved position propagation, and the introduction of adaptive gains to the on-board ACS. The FLP simulation test bed was used to verify the changes. The test bed was also used to find adequate initial values for the Kalman filter and to find inaccuracies in the sensor processing. In the second part, the adaptive gains and the Kalman initial values were validated in-orbit after the upload of the new sensor processing. Moreover, the on-board component orientation settings were corrected for the star trackers, the multi-spectral camera system, and the OSIRIS instrument on FLP.
As a result, the satellite fulfills the pointing requirement of less than 150 arcsecond deviation from the target attitude for a sufficient period of time during a pass over the target. Successful links with the optical data downlink were demonstrated with the DLR ground station in Oberpfaffenhofen.
Improvements in Attitude Determination and Control of the Small Satellite Flying Laptop
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Precise attitude control is a key factor of many payloads with high ground resolutions, small fields of view or narrow beams such as an optical data downlink. The small satellite Flying Laptop (FLP), launched in July 2017, was developed by graduate and undergraduate students at the Institute of Space Systems of the University of Stuttgart with support by the space industry and research institutions. The satellite is three-axis stabilized with reaction wheels as main actuators. FLP is equipped with the OSIRIS optical data downlink which was built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). As this instrument is body mounted on an optical bench, the attitude determination and control system (ACS) is required to point the whole satellite in the direction of the ground station with a high pointing accuracy of 150 arcseconds. At the time of launch the ACS did not reach this precision. This paper describes how the attitude determination and control were improved to achieve the required performance.
The improvements can be divided into two parts. The first part includes the enhancement of on-board sensor processing and attitude control. In the second part, in-orbit data were utilized to increase the accuracy of parameters which are used to control the spacecraft. The first part includes the addition of a Kalman filter, an improved position propagation, and the introduction of adaptive gains to the on-board ACS. The FLP simulation test bed was used to verify the changes. The test bed was also used to find adequate initial values for the Kalman filter and to find inaccuracies in the sensor processing. In the second part, the adaptive gains and the Kalman initial values were validated in-orbit after the upload of the new sensor processing. Moreover, the on-board component orientation settings were corrected for the star trackers, the multi-spectral camera system, and the OSIRIS instrument on FLP.
As a result, the satellite fulfills the pointing requirement of less than 150 arcsecond deviation from the target attitude for a sufficient period of time during a pass over the target. Successful links with the optical data downlink were demonstrated with the DLR ground station in Oberpfaffenhofen.
