A Sun gate for Galileo spacecraft attitude control

Author

Mobasser, S. ; Weisenberg, D.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

4-9 Feb. 1990

Firstpage

137

Lastpage

146

Abstract

The combination of a Sun sensor called a Sun gate (SG) and a digital programmable signal processor on the Galileo spacecraft attitude and articulation control subsystem (AACS) will orient the rotation axis of the spacecraft toward the Sun to satisfy a new requirement imposed by the new spacecraft trajectory. The combination will continuously monitor the pointing direction of the rotation axis, and any off-Sun excursions of more than a preset threshold will be detected, triggering appropriate actions by the flight software to prevent off-Sun cone angles of more than 14 degrees . The design of the SG is described in detail, its principle of operation is given, and the flight software processing of the SG output is discussed.<>

Keywords

aerospace computer control; aerospace computing; aerospace instrumentation; attitude control; computerised signal processing; photodetectors; CdS detector; Galileo spacecraft; Sun gate; Sun sensor; aerospace control; articulation control subsystem; attitude control; digital programmable signal processor; flight software; pointing direction; rotation axis; Detectors; Jupiter; Monitoring; Probes; Propulsion; Protection; Signal processing; Space vehicles; Spectroscopy; Sun;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Applications Conference, 1990. Digest., 1990 IEEE

Conference_Location

Vail, CO, USA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.1990.109079

Filename

109079