Development of pico-satellite : MEMS based ADCS sensors – startracker hardware design

Abstract

Star tracker has been developed since 1970s and proved to be the most accurate sensor ever used in the spacecraft attitude determination systems. Star tracker has been evolved through different stages since its invention. Lately, with the advancement of CMOS technology has paved the way for Active-Pixel-Sensor (APS) to construct small, light weight, power saving and inexpensive star tracker for microsatellite application where power consumption and mass are critical.

This project proposes to evaluate the possibility of implementing APS CMOS based Autonomous Star Tracker (AAST) with either Omnivision OV3620 or Micron® Imaging MT9M032 as the CMOS Active Pixel Sensor (APS) for microsatellite application.

The project also involved the following challenging tasks such as determining the sensitivity by exploiting two distinctive focal length of lens optics to create either a narrower or wider field of view. The performances and accuracy estimation of the star tracker prototype have been verified through a series of laboratory experiments and real night sky observations.