• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.273-284
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• 1999

In order to develop star trackers for a satellite in our country we studies selection procedure of optical parameters. For logical selection of the optical parameters, we simulated the entire processes in which star lights imaged on a CCD sensor were read into and processed in an associated electronics. The simulation resulted in relations between star's magnitude and achievable pointing accuracy, from which we derived optimal optical parameters to satisfy a required pointing accuracy of a star tracker. The selected optical parameters were used in an optical system design of a star tracker with a pointing accuracy of 10 arcsec.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.243-249
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• 2021

The star tracker detects microscopic star light in space and compares it with a stored list of stars to calculate the satellite's position in the inertial coordinate system. If other light, such as the sun or the earth, enters the optical head, the star cannot be recognized and the star tracker cannot be operated. In particular, strong light such as the sun affects not only operation but also the performance of the star tracker. The sun exclusion angle of the star tracker is one of the important factors determining the performance of the star tracker. This paper performs the verification of the star tracker's sun exclusion angle. In order to verify the sun exclusion angle, we predict the sun exclusion time of the star tracker and compare it to the actual sun exclusion time of the GEO-KOMPSAT-2A star tracker. In addition, the performance of the star tracker is analyzed for normal operations against the sun exclusion in the optical head. It shows that the actual sun exclusion is maintained under the range of 26 degrees, the performance requirement of the star tracker, and the star tracker operates normally in spite of the sun exclusion.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.88-94
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• 2002

This paper describes attitude determination algorithm for the low earth orbit(LEO) spacecraft using stellar inertial sensors. The cascaded gyro/star tracker extended Kalman filter is constructed to fuse two sensor data. And then the smoothing of the measurement are proposed for an unreasonable jump of star tracker. The smoothing algorithm for the rejection of star tracker error jumps is designed by scalar adaptive filter. The proposed algorithms operate to process the measurement of gyro/star tracker Kalman filter, therefore, it is comparatively simple to apply these methods to other integration systems. Simulations to gyro/star tracker integrated system show that the proposed method is effective.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.300-308
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• 2010

In order to accelerate the evolution of faster, better, cheaper spacecraft, it is evident that greatly enhanced general-purpose attitude determination methods are needed Currently, star tracker sensors based on charge coupled devices (CCD) or active pixel sensors(APS) enable one to obtain the best spacecraft attitude estimation among the existing sensors for attitude determination. In this paper, basic principles of star tracker technology are explained including major issues arising in design and development of star tracker. Also, an historical overview and worldwide survey associated with various star trackers from star scanner through microelectromechanical system(MEMS)-based star tracker is offered.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.117-123
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• 2003

One of the most important elements in satellite attitude control is sensor technology. Generally, inertial sensors introduce drift and noise which cause continuous errors. Absolute reference is needed to eliminate the problem of the inertial sensors. Star trackers are used primarily for such a purpose. There has been relatively less research effort or ground feasibility test experience on star trackers in the domestic side despite the importance of the associated technologies. In this paper, we re-introduce the basic concept of a star tracker and present the S/W simulator for the star tracker. The star simulator may be used ground test of a star tracker for the basic functioning test or the whole spacecraft test with the star tracker assembled.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.53-57
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• 1998

Star tracker placement configuration is proposed and the properness of the placement configuration is verified for star tracker's sun avoidance angle requirement. Precision attitude determination system is successfully designed using a gyro-star tracker inertial reference system for a candidate LEO spacecraft. Elaborate kalman filter formulation for a spacecraft is proposed for covariance analysis. The covariance analysis is performed to verify the capability of the proposed attitude determination system. The analysis results show that the attitude determination error and drift rate error are good enough to satisfy the mission of a candidate spacecraft.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.96-100
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• 2006

We develop the Dual Head Star Tracker (DHST) to obtain the attitude information of science and Technology Satellite2 (STSAT-2). Because most of star sensor has only one head camera, star recognition is impossible when camera point to sun or earth. We therefore considered the DHST which can obtain star images from two spots simultaneously. That is, even though we fail a star recognition from an image obtained by one camera, it is possible to recognize stars from an image obtained by the other camera. In this paper, we introduce engineer model (EM) of the DHST and propose a star recognition and a star track algorithm.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.66-76
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• 2005

In this study, star visibility analysis of a star tracker is performed by using a statistical apprach. The probability of the Sun and the Earth proximity, the solar array masking probability, and the solar array blinding probability by the Sun light are obtained from the arbitrary chosen satellite positions as a function of a line of sight vector of the star tracker in several satellite attitude modes. This analysis demonstrates that the optimized star tracker accomodations can be determined to be an elevation angle -40o and two azimuth angles $-35^{circ}$ and $-150^{circ}$.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2015

Earth's gravity field recovery was improved after the pre-processing upgrade of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiments (GRACE) satellite's star trackers. The star tracker measurements were filtered with a tighter low-pass filtering of 0.025Hz cutoff frequency, instead of a nominal filtering of 0.1Hz cutoff frequency. In addition, a jump removal algorithm was applied to remove discontinuities, due to direct Sun and/or Moon interventions, in the star tracker measurements. During the K-Band Ranging (KBR) calibration maneuvers, large attitude variations could be detected concurrently by both of the star trackers and the accelerometer. The misalignment angles of star trackers between the true frame and the normal frame could be determined by comparing measurements from these sensors. In this paper, new Earth' gravity field maps were obtained using above improvement. Based on comparisons to nominal Earth's gravity field maps, the new Earth's gravity field maps were found better than the nominal ones. Among the applied methods, the misalignment calibration of the star trackers had a major impact on the improvement of the new Earth's gravity field maps.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.90-101
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• 2006

In this paper, the calibration parameters of the gyros and star hackers are estimated by using an on-orbit AOCS sensor calibration algorithm. The calibration algorithm was implemented by Kalman filter. In order to estimate gyro calibration parameters, the calibration algorithm requires calibration maneuver and it was analyzed whether the star trackers are protected by Sun, Moon and Earth or not. Also the star tracker calibration algorithm used the camera image information. This kinds of camera image information simulated ground control point and orbit information. The estimated accuracy of star tracker calibration parameters depends on camera image information.