Apparatus for determining 3-axis space craft attitude
AssigneeHoneywell Inc.
InventorsJames A. Billing-Ross, Douglas B. Pledger, Teresa A. Fritz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A three axis attitude orientation system for a spacecraft in orbit which employs a single UV sensor. The single sensor provides roll and pitch information by locating the centroid of the earth and using this as a reference point. The system determines yaw by tracking the position of stars which appear in the field of view around the earth. three axis attitude is determined through ultraviolet imaging of the earth's limb and adjacent stars. A non-conventional wide angle optics assembly and intensified CCD array are utilized for this purpose.
Claims10
A three axis attitude reference system for a spacecraft orbiting the earth comprising:
- an ultraviolet light sensor assembly mounted on the spacecraft;
- an optical assembly coupled to said ultraviolet light sensor assembly for focusing light from a wide field of view on said ultraviolet light assembly, wherein the wide field of view includes the entirety of the earth's ultraviolet limb and at least one background star;
- and
- a processing means coupled to said ultraviolet light sensor assembly for determining rotation around the pitch and roll axis of the spacecraft through ultraviolet imaging of the earth's limb, and rotation about the yaw axis of the spacecraft through comparison of the actual location of the background stars with the predicted locations from ephemeral data.
A three axis attitude reference system for a spacecraft orbiting the earth comprising:
- an ultraviolet light sensor assembly mounted on the spacecraft;
- an optical assembly coupled to said ultraviolet light sensor assembly for focusing light from a wide field of view on said ultraviolet light assembly, wherein the wide field of view includes the entirety of the earth's ultraviolet limb and at least one background star;
- and
- a processing means coupled to said ultraviolet light sensor assembly for determining rotation around the pitch and roll axis of the spacecraft through ultraviolet imaging of the earth's limb, and rotation about the yaw axis of the spacecraft through a comparison of the actual location of the terminator crossing on the earth's limb with the predicted location of the terminator from ephemeral data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.