Abstract
The next generation of CubeSats will require accurate attitude knowledge throughout orbit for advanced science payloads and high gain antennas. A star tracker can provide the required performance, but star trackers have traditionally been too large, expensive and power hungry to be included on a CubeSat. This paper briefly surveys the state of current CubeSat ADCS systems and goes on to describe the development of a CubeSat-compatible star tracker. Algorithms for star detection, matching and attitude determination were investigated and implemented on a CubeSat-compatible embedded system. The resultant star tracker, named CubeStar, is one of the smallest star trackers in existence. It can operate fully autonomously, outputting attitude estimates at a rate of 1 Hz. An engineering model was completed and demonstrated an accuracy of better than 0.01 degrees during night sky tests.
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