Abstract
The advancement of satellite program technology mandates that issues affecting future spacecraft system development cost be resolved, while continuing to meet smaller size, lower power, and more stringent mission requirements. In the specie c area of the spacecraft attitude determination system, an optical payload pointing system can servea dual purpose: to support the payload mission and to providepreciseattitude information for the spacecraft functions. As a result, star trackers orotherprecisereferencesystems can beeliminated to reduce the development cost. Additional benee ts include performance robustness to spacecraft motion or disturbance and potential cost saving due to weight reduction, e.g., launch cost. Attitude estimators using an optical payload pointing system and strap-down gyros are derived in detail for two distinct formulations: spacecraft body and inertial formulations. Alternative Kalman e lter equation derivations are shown using the skew symmetric matrix properties of the attitude kinematics equation. It is also shown that both formulations produce identical solutions. However, the body formulation is conceptually easier to understand, and the inertial formulation requires less processing time. To show thespacecraft attitudeestimatorperformanceusing an optical payload pointing system, an exampleisshown for an agile low-Earth-orbit satellite.
Published Version
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