Development of CubeStar : a CubeSat-compatible star tracker

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The next generation of CubeSats will require accurate attitude knowledge throughoutorbit for advanced science payloads and high gain antennas. A star tracker canprovide the required performance, but star trackers have traditionally been too large,expensive and power hungry to be included on a CubeSat. The aim of this projectis to develop and demonstrate a CubeSat compatible star tracker. Subsystems fromtwo other CubeSat components, CubeSense and CubeComputer, were combined witha sensitive, commercial image sensor and low-light lens to produce one of the smalleststar trackers in existence. Algorithms for star detection, matching and attitude determinationwere investigated and implemented on the embedded system. The resultantstar tracker, named CubeStar, can operate fully autonomously, outputting attitudeestimates at a rate of 1 Hz. An engineering model was completed and demonstratedan accuracy of better than 0.01 degrees during night sky tests.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University