COMBINED EARTH/STAR SENSOR SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMININGTHE ORBIT AND POSITION OF SPACECRAFT

摘要

A combined earth/star system (1) for tri-axial determination of the position of satellites in space, comprising separate apertures with various direction s of observation and joint image detectors (4) for the earth and star sensor. A joint optical system (2) for observing the earth and the stars and a deflect or mirror (3) for deflecting laterally incident earth light onto the optical system can also be provided. A focal plane sensor with an array of image detectors (4) is located on one focal plane, whereby the integration time ca n be controlled. An evaluation unit determines the orbit and position of the spacecraft from the position and movement of the stars and the edge of the earth in the focal plane.