Pattern recognition of star constellations for spacecraft applications

Author

Liebe, Carl Christian

Author_Institution

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

Volume

7

Issue

6

fYear

1992

fDate

6/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

34

Lastpage

41

Abstract

A software system for a star imager for online satellite attitude determination is described. The system works with a single standard commercial CCD camera with a high aperture lens and an onboard star catalog. It is capable of both an initial coarse 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 image aims at an accuracy better than 2 arc sec with a processing time of less than a few seconds. The star imager has been developed for the Danish Oersted satellite.<>

Keywords

CCD image sensors; aerospace computing; aerospace instrumentation; artificial satellites; computerised instrumentation; computerised pattern recognition; navigation; position measurement; CCD camera; Danish Oersted satellite; aperture lens; averaging; coarse attitude; identified star constellations; onboard star catalog; online satellite attitude determination; pattern recognition; prediction; 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

10.1109/62.145117

Filename

145117