Pattern recognition of star constellations for spacecraft applications

Author

Liebe, Carl Christian

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electrophys., Tech. Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

Volume

8

Issue

1

fYear

1993

Firstpage

31

Lastpage

39

Abstract

A software system for a star imager for on-line satellite attitude determination is described. The system works with a single standard commercial CCD-camera with a high aperture lens and an onboard star catalogue. It is capable of both an initial course attitude determination without any prior knowledge of the satellite orientation and a high-accuracy attitude determination based on prediction and averaging of several identified star constellations. In the high accuracy mode the star imager aims at an accuracy better than 2 arc sec with a processing time of less than a few seconds. The star imager is developed for the Danish microsatellite Oersted.<>

Keywords

CCD image sensors; aerospace computing; angular measurement; artificial satellites; astronomy computing; distance measurement; pattern recognition; stars; Danish microsatellite Oersted; angular distance; attitude determination; averaging; onboard star catalogue; pattern recognition; prediction; satellite orientation; software; spacecraft applications; standard commercial CCD-camera; star constellations; star imager; Application software; Earth; Energy consumption; Instruments; Magnetometers; Pattern recognition; Position measurement; Satellites; Software systems; Space vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8985

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/62.180383

Filename

180383