Modeling and Simulation of A Commercial Medium Sun Sensor

Sun sensors are widely used in spacecraft attitude determination and control systems (ADCS), while an analytical model of a sun sensor would help in spacecraft ADCS design, analysis, and simulation. This paper derives an analytical model of a commercial medium sun sensor, which, to the knowledge of the authors, has not been seen in literature. In addition, the model is validated with experiments by comparing model outputs with experimentally measured outputs of the sensor. Both sets of results coincide quite well. Furthermore, the possible sources of modeling errors and the measures to eliminate them are discussed.