Combined earth and star sensor for simultaneous path and position control of a satellite system

摘要

The sensor system responds to starlight (6) that is focussed (2) onto a CCD sensor array (4). The image of the earth is obtained through a separate aperture (7) and can be superimposed. The images are processed to determine the satellite path. The sensor system uses star catalog information to remove error influences from affecting the accuracy of the earth edge calculation in the picture.