Satellite Attitude Determination Using Absorbed Heat Fluxes
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 6
Abstract
In this paper, a method is introduced for determination of satellite attitude using heat fluxes absorbed by the satellite. Heat fluxes are measured using heat-flux measurement sensors. The heat flux equation then is solved inversely to determine satellite attitude. Advantages of this method in comparison to the other attitude determination methods are its employment of only one measurement system rather than a combination of different attitude sensors, ease of implementation, negligible power consumption, low mass budget, and no need for calibration by other devices. This method is evaluated by simulating three test cases of satellites in orbit. Results show that the present method works very well in all cases. Satellite attitude can be determined accurately during the sunlight part of the orbit and with error in the shadowed part of the orbit. It was also observed that the accuracy of the present method strongly depends on the resolution of the temperature sensors.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Battagliere, M. L., Santoni, F., Piergentili, F., Ovchinnikov, M., and Graziani, F. (2010). “Passive magnetic attitude stabilization system of the Edu SAT micro satellite.” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part G: J. Aerosp. Eng., 224(10), 1097–1106.
Candini, G. P., Piergentili, F., and Santoni, F. (2012). “Miniaturized attitude control system for nano-satellites.” Acta Astronaut., 81(1), 325–334.
Cheng, L., Zhaoying, Z., and Xu, F. (2008). “Attitude determination for MAVs using a Kalman filter.” Tsinghua Sci. Technol., 13(5), 593–597.
DiMiceli, J. D. (2009). “Attitude determination of a student satellite using on-orbit magnetometer and temperature data.” California Polytechnic State Univ., San Luis Obispo, CA.
Fan, J. Y. (2003). “A modified Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for singular systems of nonlinear equations.” J. Comput. Math., 21(5), 625–636.
Fei, L., Jie, L., Haifu, W., and Chang, L. (2014). “An improved quaternion Gauss-Newton algorithm for attitude determination using magnetometer and accelerometer.” Chin. J. Aeronaut., 27(4), 986–993.
Karam, R. D. (1998). Chapter IV, Satellite thermal control for system engineering, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Reston, VA.
Khaniki, H. B., and Karimian, S. M. H. (2014). “Determining the heat flux absorbed by satellite surfaces with temperature data.” J. Mech. Sci. Technol., 28(6), 2393–2398.
Kim, D., Lee, S., Lee, S., and Oh, H. S. (2011). “Application of a new efficient attitude determination algorithm on a ground simulator.” Int. J. Control Autom. Syst., 9(5), 988–1004.
Kumar, R. R., Mazanek, D. D., and Heck, M. L. (1995). “Simulation and shuttle hitchhiker validation of passive satellite aero-stabilization.” J. Spacecraft Rockets, 32(5), 806–811.
Martel, F., Pal, P. K., and Psi, M. L. (1988). “Three-axis attitude determination via Kalman filtering of magnetometer data.” Flight Mechanics/Estimation Theory Symp., NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.
Santoni, F., and Bolotti, F. (2000). “Attitude determination of small spinning spacecraft using three axis magnetometer and solar panels data.” Universithdegli Studi di Roma “la Sapienza,” Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, Rome.
Santoni, F., Cordelli, E., and Piergentili, F. (2013). “Determination of disposed-upper-stage attitude motion by ground-based optical observations.” J. Spacecraft Rockets, 50(3), 701–708.
Santoni, F., and Piergentili, F. (2005). “UNISAT-3 attitude determination using solar panel and magnetometer data.” Int. Astronautical Federation—56th Int. Astronautical Congress, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Reston, VA, 2812–2819.
Shuster, M. D. (2004). “Deterministic three-axis attitude determination.” J. Astronaut. Sci., 52(3), 405–419.
Somers, P. (2011). “Cylindrical RSO signatures, spin axis orientation and rotational period determination.” 2011 AMOS Surveillance Technical Conf. Proc., Maui Economic Development Board, Maui, HI.
Viscito, L., and Cerise, M. C. (2013). “Rate and attitude determination using solar array currents.” United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO.
Wertz, J. R., and Larson, W. J. (1999). Chapter 11, Space mission analysis and design, 3rd Ed., Microcosm Press, Portland, OR.
Wetterer, C., and Jah, M. (2009). “Attitude determination from light curves.” J. Guidance Control Dyn., 32(5), 1648–1651.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 6 • November 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 16, 2015
Accepted: Mar 31, 2016
Published online: Jun 28, 2016
Published in print: Nov 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Nov 28, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.