Validating a Star Tracker Algorithm and Measuring Its Accuracy Through Suburban Night Sky Observations

Wen-Chiao Chen

Peer Reviewed

Abstract: Star trackers determine the attitude of objects by identifying stars in space and matching them to a catalog of stars. To validate the effectiveness of a star tracker, stellar images must be obtained, and real night sky observations offer results that are close to actual in-orbit situations. Measurement of absolute accuracy requires accurate camera orientation; however, determining the actual orientation of a camera during on-ground experiments is challenging. This study proposed a method to provide an orientation as close to the actual one as possible that considers both astronomical factors and mounting offsets. The efficacy of a star tracker algorithm, especially its background thresholding function, was evaluated using night sky images captured in a suburban area with interference from stray light and thin clouds. The star tracker algorithm provided continuous and stable attitude estimates with arcminute-level accuracy.
Published in: Proceedings of the 37th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2024)
September 16 - 20, 2024
Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor
Baltimore, Maryland
Pages: 1981 - 1994
Cite this article: Chen, Wen-Chiao, "Validating a Star Tracker Algorithm and Measuring Its Accuracy Through Suburban Night Sky Observations," Proceedings of the 37th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2024), Baltimore, Maryland, September 2024, pp. 1981-1994. https://doi.org/10.33012/2024.19937
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