The star identification, pointing and tracking system of UVSTAR, an attached payload instrument system for the Shuttle Hitchhiker-M platform

Details The star identification, pointing and tracking system of UVSTAR, an attached payload instrument system for the Shuttle Hitchhiker-M platform The star identification, pointing and tracking system of UVSTAR, an attached payload instrument system for the Shuttle Hitchhiker-M platform

Oct 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993ssp..symp..153d&link_type=abstract

In NASA. Goddard Space Flight Center, The 1993 Shuttle Small Payloads Symposium p 153-167 (SEE N94-19162 04-12)

Physics

Optics

Astronomical Spectroscopy, Charge Coupled Devices, Electro-Optics, Payloads, Pointing Control Systems, Satellite Attitude Control, Spaceborne Astronomy, Spaceborne Telescopes, Spectrographs, Star Distribution, Star Trackers, Target Acquisition, Algorithms, Attitude (Inclination), Computerized Simulation, Gimbals

Scientific paper

We describe an algorithm for star identification and pointing/tracking of a spaceborne electro-optical system and simulation analyses to test the algorithm. The algorithm will be implemented in the guiding system of UVSTAR, a spectrographic telescope for observations of astronomical and planetary sources operating in the 500-1250 A waveband at approximately 1 A resolution. The experiment is an attached payload and will fly as a Hitchhiker-M payload on the Shuttle. UVSTAR includes capabilities for independent target acquisition and tracking. The spectrograph package has internal gimbals that allow angular movement of plus or minus 3 deg from the central position. Rotation about the azimuth axis (parallel to the Shuttle z axis) and elevation axis (parallel to the Shuttle x axis) will actively position the field of view to center the target of interest in the fields of the spectrographs. The algorithm is based on an on-board catalog of stars. To identify star fields, the algorithm compares the positions of stars recorded by the guiding imager to positions computed from the on-board catalog. When the field has been identified, its position within the guiding imager field of view can be used to compute the pointing corrections necessary to point to a target of interest. In tracking mode, the software uses the past history to predict the quasi-periodic attitude control motions of the shuttle and sends pointing commands to cancel the motion and stabilize UVSTAR on the target. The guiding imager (guider) will have an 80-mm focal length and f/1.4 optics giving a field of view of 6 deg x 4.5 deg using a 385 x 288 pixel intensified CCD. It will be capable of providing high accuracy (better than 2 arc-sec) attitude determination from coarse (6 deg x 4.5 deg) initial knowledge of the pointing direction; and of pointing toward the target. It will also be capable of tracking at the same high accuracy with a processing time of less than a few hundredths of a second.

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