Attitude determination system for artificial satellite

摘要

An attitude determination system for an artificial satellite capable of performing star identification without need for the aid of ground station includes an image processing module (17) for processing star images observed at predetermined time points by a star sensor (16) mounted on the artificial satellite (1) for arithmetically determining direction vectors of the observed stars, a rotation estimating module (18) for estimating a rotational motion of the artificial satellite (1) between an attitude of the artificial satellite at a predetermined time point and an attitude of the artificial satellite at another time point, an elongation estimating module (19) for estimating elongations between the direction vectors of plural stars the images of which are picked up at a same time point by the star sensor and estimating the elongations between the direction vectors of plural stars the images of which are picked up at different time points by the star sensor on the basis of the estimated rotational motion, a star identifying module (20) for establishing correspondences between a plurality of the stars for which relation of the elongation has been determined and stars on a star catalog for identifying the stars, and an attitude angle estimating module (21) for estimating an attitude angle of the artificial satellite on the basis of result of identification of the stars.