Gyro / Star Tracker Integration for Satellite High-Accuracy Attitude Determination Considering Relative Sensor Kinematics

摘要

Gyro / Star tracker integration, usually referred to as gyro-stellar or stellar-inertial estimation is the most common approach for high-precision spacecraft attitude determination. The achievable performance is significantly influenced by relative kinematics between star trackers and gyro unit. The paper analyzes the rejection of this time-variant sensor misalignment. The results show that covariance tuning already improves the achievable attitude performance. But only with state augmentation a significant attitude improvement can be achieved. The presented results are based on Monte Carlo simulations for a typical Earth observation mission.