STAR PATTERN RECOGNITION METHOD, AND STAR SENSOR APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING SPACECRAFT ATTITUDE

摘要

The present invention relates to a star pattern recognition method and to a star sensor apparatus for determining spacecraft attitude, and more particularly, to a star pattern recognition method and to a star sensor apparatus using statistical data. According to the present invention, a star pattern recognition method for determining spacecraft attitude is provided, as well as a star sensor apparatus for the method, wherein said method comprises: an observation data acquiring step of acquiring statistical data for a first reference star in images of stars obtained from a star sensor of a spacecraft; and a pattern recognition step of searching the registered plurality of reference stars for one reference star having statistical data closest to the statistical data of the first reference star. The statistical data for the relevant star are statistical indices determined by coordinates on a standard coordinate system of stars in a region-of-interest containing said relevant star.