THE SUPAERO STAR TRACKER FOR THE SSETI STUDENT MICROSATELLITE

摘要

Small satellites are a unique opportunity for students to discover, through hands-on experience, the challenges associated to space-related projects. This paper will present one of these projects, the development of the miniature star tracker for the Student Space Education and Technology Initiative's European Student Earth Orbiter (SSETI ESEO). Emphasis will be put on the necessity of such endeavours to motivate students to embrace a career in the space industry and research. The star tracker is a small system in itself, integrating within tight constraints of space and mass optics, redundant electronics and a structure. The camera is linked to the S/C central processing unit, which runs the complex star-tracking algorithms.