Richard Boucher (The Aerospace Corporation), Edward Beiting (The Aerospace Corporation), Kameron Rausch (The Aerospace Corporation), Benjamin Wheeler (Trex Enterprises), Lisandro Leon (Trex Enterprises)
Keywords: Instrumentation Design
Abstract:
Two independently-developed optical models were created to assess the feasibility of image-based attitude determination of a low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite using a meter-class deployable telescope. Both models integrate existing AFRL tools for satellite modeling (TASAT) and atmospheric transmission and sky backgrounds (PLEXUS), with different turbulence, image-formation, and speckle-imaging post-processing algorithms. The end-to-end results of the two simulations were compared and found to agree very closely. The results to-date indicate that attitude determination using the best reconstructed images under moderate atmospheric conditions should be possible for a one-meter class telescope. However, images taken at less than ideal viewing angles or with more severe atmospheric conditions are not amenable to attitude determination using only post-processing algorithms.
Date of Conference: September 16-19, 2008
Track: Instrumentation Design