Three axes stabilized spacecraft and method of sun acquisition

Details Three axes stabilized spacecraft and method of sun acquisition Three axes stabilized spacecraft and method of sun acquisition

B - Operations, Transporting

64

G

B64G 1/36 (2006.01) B64G 1/28 (2006.01) B64G 1/26 (2006.01)

Patent

CA 2079767

ABSTRACT A method of sun search and acquisition is disclosed for a spacecraft (18) which is stabilized in three axes. The method utilizes three axes gyro rate and integrated rate sensing together with three simple slit type sensors (10, 20, 30, 40). The method starts from an arbitrary attitude and from body rates up to the limits of the gyro rate sensors and is comprises of a rate nulling step followed by two consecutive simple search procedures. One search procedure is about the pitch axis until alignment of the sun with the roll/pitch plane and the other search procedure is about the yaw axis until alignment of the sun with the roll axis. The sun acquisition culminates in pointing the roll axis of the spacecraft (18) toward the sun. By using slit typesun sensors (10, 20, 30, 40) versus a wide field of view sensor it is easier to find a mounting location on a spacecraft (18) which is free from spurious reflections off other parts of the spacecraft.

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