Abstract
The sun vector is commonly used for defining a satellite attitude and many types of sensors exist for its determination. An attitude determination system is designed for each satellite project based on missionsโ requirements. A fine pinhole sun sensor type was chosen and designed for HORYU-IV nanosatellite of Kyushu Institute of Technology. This sensor has a round-shaped hole and uses commercial off-the-shelf silicon photodiode, which consists of four small sensitive elements arranged close to each other. This type of sensors commonly uses look-up tables for providing high accuracy, which requires a large amount of data to be saved. Linear and polynomial methods for sun vector determination were considered instead of look-up tables to avoid having a large amount of data to be saved. Moreover, the influence of dead spaces between photodiodes on sensor accuracy was also investigated. Six real sun sensors and their theoretical models with different configurations were designed for investigating the difference between various calculating methods. The comparison of accuracies between proposed methods for real sun sensor models leads to two main findings: 1) on average, a polynomial method decreases error level of determined angle by 70% when compared with linear method; 2) accounting for gaps between photodiodes further decreases the average error of the angle determined by 15 % for polynomial, and by 6% for linear method when compared with methods not accounting for gaps.
Highlights
The comparison of accuracies between proposed methods for real sun sensor models leads to two main findings: 1) on average, a polynomial method decreases error level of determined angle by 70% when compared with linear method; 2) accounting for gaps between photodiodes further decreases the average error of the angle determined by 15 % for polynomial, and by 6% for linear method when compared with methods not accounting for gaps
For HORYU-IV nanosatellite developed at Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech), a fine analog round-shaped pinhole sun sensor (Figure 1) was selected and developed
It uses a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) analog sensor namely, quadrant silicon PIN photodiode S4349 (Hamamatsu), which consists of four small photodiodes arranged close to each other[3]
Summary
The selection of a sun sensor type depends on a considered satelliteโs mission requirements. For HORYU-IV nanosatellite developed at Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech), a fine analog round-shaped pinhole sun sensor (Figure 1) was selected and developed. It uses a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) analog sensor namely, quadrant silicon PIN photodiode S4349 (Hamamatsu), which consists of four small photodiodes arranged close to each other[3]. This type of sun sensor was chosen because of relative ease of production and low cost
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
