Development of a Low-Cost, Low-Power AttitudeDetermination System for a Nano-Satellite

摘要

Our objective is to determine the attitude of a 2-kg nano-satellite to within about 1 deg accuracy (la). To achieve this goal, the sensor suite of PurdueSat includes a Position Sensitive Detector as a sun sensor, a 3-axis magnetometer, and a 3-axis gyro. A low-power microcomputer continuously integrates gyro outputs to determine attitude; sun and magnetic field vectors are periodically processed for static attitude updates that check gyro error growth. We demonstrate that a 1.5 deg requirement is within the capability of our low-cost nano-satellite.