Simulation of Spacecraft Attitude Measurement Data by Modeling Physical Characteristics of Dynamics and Sensors

As the remote sensing satellite technology grows, the acquisition of accurate attitude and position information of the satellite has become more and more important. Due to the data processing limitation of the on-board orbit propagator and attitude determination algorithm, it is required to develop much more accurate orbit and attitude determination, which are so called POD (precision orbit determination) and PAD (precision attitude determination) techniques. The sensor and attitude dynamics simulation takes a great part in developing a PAD algorithm for two reasons: 1. when a PAD algorithm is developed before the launch, realistic sensor data are not available, and 2. reference attitude data are necessary for the performance verification of a PAD algorithm. A realistic attitude dynamics and sensor (IRU and star tracker) outputs simulation considering their physical characteristics are presented in this paper, which is planned to be used for a PAD algorithm development, test and performance verification.