Design, Manufacture and Testing of a Medium Accuracy Star Tracker

摘要

The development, manufacturing, and testing of a CCD bright star sensor breadboard model are summarized. Adaptation potential of the model for faint star tracking; and applicability of photon event centroiding techniques to point source centroiding are discussed. A model was flown on a balloon to detect gamma ray sources. Equipment failures prevented utilization of ground recordings, but it is probable that the payload structure reached 60 C instead of the 10 to 15 C specified, allowing the sensor to see bright stars only. Postflight tests confirm that sensor performance meets design requirements: + 6 visual magnitude sensitivity; 28 sec target acquisition time (max); 25 updates/sec in tracking mode; 1.5 arcmin resolution; and 36 arcsec noise equivalent angle.