Coarse sun or earth sensor for a satellite and method for roughly determining the position of the sun or earth on board a satellite

摘要

The system determines sun and earth position vectors for a satellite using the signals provided by six sensor modules that are fixed around the surface of the satellite. Each of the modules has a mounting base (5) with a temperature sensor (1) together with a solar energy cell (3) providing a measure of redundancy. An alternative version has a pair of temperature sensors with different thermo optical characteristics.