The Miranda Star Sensor Experiment.

摘要

This is an account of the star sensor experiment in Miranda, the British technology satellite launched by an American Scout rocket from Vandenberg AFB, California in March 1974. The star sensor used in this experiment is a single axis sensor and was designed and built at the RAE. The main aims of the experiment were to investigate the performance of the sensor in orbit and to demonstrate its compatibility with the spacecraft attitude control system when used to track a star. The authors describe the basic design features of the sensor and the methods used to test and integrate it with the satellite. They outline the various attitude control modes that were available in orbit and describe the way these were used to acquire and lock the control system onto the selected star. The aperture of the sensor's objective lens was only 2.5 cm in diameter and although some scattered earth albedo interference occurred, many crossings of stars down to +4.5 detector magnitude were recorded during the star mapping exercises and six successful star locks were achieved on either Canopus or Sirius at roughly one month intervals, during the 8 month operational lifetime of the satellite. On each of these occasions the control system remained in lock for its full scheduled period of about 2 days and only unlocked when commanded to do so. (Author)