Small satellites are now capable of performing missions that require accurate attitude determination and control. However, low weight, size, power, and cost requirements limit the types of attitude sensors that can be used on a small craft, making attitude estimation difficult. In particular, star trackers -- often the attitude sensors of choice for spacecraft, ballistic missile etc., are not practical for small satellites, and CMOS APS is a good substitute for attitude sensors. Some of the technical advantages of CMOS APS are no blooming, low power consumption, direct digital output, small size and little support circuitry, simple to design, etc. This paper discusses the application probability of CMOS APS technology in star tracker for use in small satellites. A ground-based prototype vision system based on CMOS APS has been built to demonstrate the advantages of using CMOS APS in star tracker. Resolving capability, noise, radiation hardening and some other characteristics are discussed in detail. CMOS image sensor is sure to be a potential replacement of CCD in the field of attitude sensors.


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    Title :

    Application of CMOS APS in star tracker


    Contributors:
    Liu, Zhi (author) / Wang, Yefan (author) / Yang, Jingyi (author) / Hao, Zhihang (author)

    Conference:

    Advanced Materials and Devices for Sensing and Imaging ; 2002 ; Shanghai,China


    Published in:

    Proc. SPIE ; 4919 ; 441


    Publication date :

    2002-09-20





    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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