Lightweight Low-Power Coarse Star Tracker
Lightweight Low-Power Coarse Star Tracker
Thomas J. McGuire
MIT Space Systems Laboratory
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 37-350
Cambridge, MA 02139
617.253.8541
[email protected]
Abstract. General industry research on spacecraft attitude determination and control components is focused on
increasing accuracy to the exclusion of all else. This is contrary to the clear requirement for decreased complexity,
mass, and power consumption to fit the needs of small, maneuverable, low-cost spacecraft. To address this need,
AeroAstro and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Space Systems Laboratory are developing a coarse star
tracker, which strikes an appropriate balance between accuracy, power consumption, mass and cost.
The coarse star tracker is targeted for small spacecraft, addressing requirements of a wide range of applications,
including orbit transfer and rendezvous missions. This market is presently inadequately served, because higher
accuracy star trackers simply do not fit within the mass, power, and cost constraints of small spacecraft missions.
The design described herein is a 300-gram unit that consumes less than 1 Watt of power. With a pointing accuracy
of better than 100 arc-seconds, the star tracker will enable a cost-effective three-axis stabilized spacecraft to attain
pointing accuracies to better than 0.25 degree, more than adequate for most low-earth orbit (LEO) missions. The
team is exploiting acquisition and tracking algorithm simplification and is developing ways to further reduce mass,
power consumption, complexity and cost.
10000 10000
Typical Medium Sun Sensors
Typical Sun Sensors
1000
1000
Accuracy
(arc-sec)
Proposed Coarse Star Tracker
Accuracy
(arc-sec)
Caltrac 10
10 Terma HE-5AS
Terma HE-5AS Ball CT-63x Ball CT-63x
1
1
0 5 10 15 20
$- $200K $400K $600K $800K
Price Power Consumption (watts)
1000
Accuracy
(arc-sec)
1
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Mass (kg)
devices at 1 to 0.5 degree and technology’s best Table 1. Star Tracker Performance Specifications.
performing star tracker at less than 10 arc-seconds, and
at a cost only slightly greater than the coarse accuracy Specification Performance
systems, somewhere in the $50k to $75K range. The
Field of View ~30 degrees (conical)
coarse star tracker now under development at
AeroAstro and the Massachusetts Institute of Accuracy < 100 arc-seconds
Technology (MIT) Space Systems Laboratory (SSL),
funded by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) through Roll Rate (Minimum with 0.3 degree/sec
the DoD Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Above Accuracy)
program, fills this gap, as shown in Figure 1, and Update Rate 1 Hz
supports MDA and other DoD organizations’ small
satellite programs. Mass 300 grams
Power < 1 Watt @ 5.5 VDC
Currently, AeroAstro and the MIT SSL are continuing
development of the coarse star tracker, moving to refine Dimensions 5.1cm x 7.6cm x 7.6cm
the design through flight prototype hardware
Volume 300 cm3
development, integration, and testing. The performance
specifications for the coarse star tracker are shown in Output x, y, z ECI frame
Table 1, and a simplified functional block diagram of
the star tracker is shown in Figure 2. Limiting Star Magnitude 4th
Star Pairs Tracked Maximum of 4
The mass and volume constraints imposed on the coarse Simultaneously
star tracker are a direct result of the low mass and
volume requirements of small satellite systems Interface RS-422
themselves. In an effort to significantly reduce the
mass and complexity of the coarse star tracker, one of The coarse star tracker being developed is a shift away
the key innovations investigated is the use of a pinhole from the industry trend toward increasing star tracker
lens as an alternative to traditional, heavy lenses. attitude determination accuracy to the exclusion of all
Star Catalog A useful item regarding the accuracy of the star tracker
was found in a paper by Birnbaum.1 It gives a rule of
Roll, Pitch, and thumb for the accuracy improvement in using more
Yaw Position than two stars to perform a least squares fit to obtain an
(x, y, z)
attitude determination. The error of the attitude
Figure 2. Simplified Functional Block Diagram. estimate improves with the number of stars used,
10
I rolling iU
= (3)
8 I no roll r˙
6
Figure 6 shows how a bright star can be resolved at
4
higher roll rates
† as a streak in comparison to dimmer
stars at given update rates. This is important, since the
2 update rate will be somewhat fixed at slower update
rates in order to image dim stars, and bright stars will
0
show up as streaks. In the figure, for a given update
3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6
rate, the brighter stars can handle higher roll rates.
Limiting Magnitude
1.5
Figure 4. Largest Acceptable Update Rate vs.
Limiting Stellar Magnitude.
3
approach is to look at two subsequent attitude fixes
2.5 finding the roll rate. An intriguing option would be to
2 intentionally allow the star images to become streaks,
1.5 and measure those streaks in order to find the roll. This
1 technique has been implemented in the Italian FAST
0.5 project.4 This is an interesting possibility, but not
0
within the specifications for the initial star tracker being
3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 developed by AeroAstro and the MIT SSL.
Limiting Magnitude
Instrument Definition
Figure 5. Limiting Roll Rate for a Corresponding Work to date suggests that the power goal of less than 1
Stellar Magnitude. Watt is achievable. Even though at this time, a firm
load
noise
Sequential Tasks
sift
centroid
match
group
attitude