Attitude determination system and method

摘要

An attitude sensing system utilizing simplified techniques and apparatus includes a spacecraft control processor which receives signals from an inertial measurement unit and two attitude sensors. The spacecraft control processor calculates a time-varying gain matrix for estimating attitude errors and gyroscope drifts corresponding to the axes of the inertial measurement unit. In special cases where the separation angle between the attitude sensor vectors is less than approximately 10 degrees, the time-varying gain matrix is computed as a fixed gain matrix and a corresponding desensitizing factor.