Session
Weekend Poster Session 1
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
As the use of small satellites for advanced space missions continues to grow, the importance of low mass and cost three axis attitude stabilization systems is increasing as well, which means high accuracy attitude knowledge is required. Star trackers provide the most accurate attitude knowledge of any type of attitude sensor, but their high cost, size, and weight can be prohibitive to small satellite missions. Many simple star trackers have been developed using commercial-off-the-shelf camera sensors and processing hardware, but the challenge remains in testing and characterizing these devices. Common methods involve night sky tests, where the star tracker is held up to the night sky to image the star field and perform attitude determination, or using manufacturer provided images for commercial star trackers. These methods, however, severely limit the sky conditions that can be tested. Night sky tests depend on weather and can only image regions of the sky the user has access to, while lab-based testing as described can only test still images.
This paper presents a hardware-in-the-loop star tracker test bed developed for comprehensive ground-based testing of both in-house and commercial star trackers. The system consists of a small screen to display a star field, a simple in-house camera star tracker, and a microprocessor. This test bed allows any star field image to be simulated. The system is set up in a tabletop configuration, but its small size lends the system to use with a spacecraft dynamics platform, which can facilitate testing of control algorithms using real star tracker output.
A Hardware-In-The-Loop Star Tracker Testbed
Utah State University, Logan, UT
As the use of small satellites for advanced space missions continues to grow, the importance of low mass and cost three axis attitude stabilization systems is increasing as well, which means high accuracy attitude knowledge is required. Star trackers provide the most accurate attitude knowledge of any type of attitude sensor, but their high cost, size, and weight can be prohibitive to small satellite missions. Many simple star trackers have been developed using commercial-off-the-shelf camera sensors and processing hardware, but the challenge remains in testing and characterizing these devices. Common methods involve night sky tests, where the star tracker is held up to the night sky to image the star field and perform attitude determination, or using manufacturer provided images for commercial star trackers. These methods, however, severely limit the sky conditions that can be tested. Night sky tests depend on weather and can only image regions of the sky the user has access to, while lab-based testing as described can only test still images.
This paper presents a hardware-in-the-loop star tracker test bed developed for comprehensive ground-based testing of both in-house and commercial star trackers. The system consists of a small screen to display a star field, a simple in-house camera star tracker, and a microprocessor. This test bed allows any star field image to be simulated. The system is set up in a tabletop configuration, but its small size lends the system to use with a spacecraft dynamics platform, which can facilitate testing of control algorithms using real star tracker output.
