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Abstract
Absolute attitude estimation sensors provide high accuracy pointing capabilities to spacecraft, but as developed thus far, they constitute a large fraction of CubeSat mission's budget. We introduce SPE Lab Open Star Tracker (SOST), an ultra-low-cost solution that currently provides sub-arcminute precision at a frequency of 1 to 3 estimations per minute in the Lost-In-Space scenario. Our Star Tracker development rests on open source astronomy software, the Raspberry Pi 3 B+, and its camera. We developed a new algorithm to solve the Lost-In-Space problem that works by acquiring an image and comparing it with different stellar catalog segments. We tested our algorithm using images from working satellites. The functioning of our platform was evaluated by using night-sky pictures taken from ground. We also conducted environmental tests of our platform by using a thermal-vacuum chamber. We optimized the catalog segment separation by analyzing the execution time, success rate, precision, and power consumption of the full platform. SOST delivers a mean precision below 1-arcminute for the boresight direction. With a segment separation of 10°, the attitude estimation is found in the 97.3% of the cases with processing time under 20s. The success rate improves to 99.8% by using 5° as segments separation but processing time doubles. This platform is open and freely available to CubeSat researchers interested in further development or deployment.
Highlights
Attitude determination is crucial for any spacecraft that requires knowing its orientation while flying
ALGORITHM EVALUATION BY USING ON-SPACE IMAGES (FROM STEREO MISSION) STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) [43] is the third mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program (STP). It employs two nearly identical space-based observatories - one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind - to provide the first-ever stereoscopic measurements to study the Sun and the nature of its coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
The proposed Star Tracker (ST) (SOST) is based on two open software suites commonly used in astronomy and an educational hardware platform popular among educators and embedded systems hobbyist
Summary
Attitude determination is crucial for any spacecraft that requires knowing its orientation while flying. This attitude information is essential for maximizing energy collection or efficient communication, and for other payload requirements. Attitude sensors have been part of satellite missions since the dawn of the space era. The improved technology and algorithms were not shared because the spacecraft development evolved as a demonstration of power in the polarized Cold War era. As this era came to an end, knowledge was slowly transferred to the private sector. STs have followed this trend; they are generally available as commercial black boxes
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