Star Tracker

Government, commercial, and educational organizations see the usefulness and economy of
employing CubeSat-sized satellites to accomplish various missions. Space weather research,
communication, and remote sensing are all tasks that, in the past, could only be given to larger
and more expensive spacecraft. However, CubeSats offer the opportunity for performing all of
these tasks at one to two orders of magnitude lower mission cost. Unfortunately, one major
challenge that stands in the way of fully embracing CubeSats as a platform is precision attitude
determination and control.

The process of star tracking consists of three main steps:

centroiding star identification attitude determination

Centroiding takes the image from the camera and determines the coordinates of the stars in the
image plane, which can then be converted to unit vectors in the tracker coordinate frame.

Star identification is the crux of the star tracker. The unit vectors in the tracker frame are
analyzed and compared to a star catalog to determine which stars are in the image frame and
consequently provide unit vectors in the inertial frame.

Finally, the list of unit vectors in the tracker and inertial frame are processed by an algorithm like
QUEST to determine the attitude of the star tracker in the inertial frame.

We wish to compute qestimated, the minimum variance estimate of q, where the latter is a column
matrix whose elements are the components of the quaternion of rotation.

Derivation of Quaternion of satellite.

Euler's rotation equations are a vector quasilinear first-order ordinary differential

equation describing the rotation of a rigid body, using a rotating reference frame with its axes
fixed to the body and parallel to the body's principal axes of inertia. Their general form is:

I ώ+ ω × ( Iω )=M
where M is the applied torques, I is the inertia matrix, and ω is the angular velocity about the
principal axes.
In 3D principal orthogonal coordinates, It become
Ix ώ x+(Iz-Iy) ώ y ώ z=Mx

Iy ώ y+(Ix-Iz) ώ z ώ x=My

Iz ώ z+(Iy-Ix) ώ x ώ y =Mz
 I
In this case angular velocity is inertial referenced so ω=ω
B
and
M = NGG + NMT + ND.

Where NGG(gravity gradient torque vector),NMT(applied magnetorquer control

firing),ND(Disturbance torque vector).
NGG= 6ω0(C(ω)I −C(ωI))C(u)
NMT= 2C(mt)C(B )
where,
u = −A(q) [0 0 1]T
BBY = A(q)BLO
m = [mtx mty mtz]T : magnetic torque of the magnetorquer;
C skew-symmetric matrix

A(q)=

h= Iω -> Angular Momentum

So the final The dynamic of a spacecraft in inertial space is governed by Euler's equation of
motion

I ώ+ ω × ( Iω )=M

B B ( B )
I ώ I +ω I × I ω I + h + h́=N ≫+N mt + N d

B B B (
I ώ I =N ≫+ N mt + N d−ω I × I ω I + h −h́ )
In 3D principal orthogonal coordinates, It become
Ix ώ =Mx-(Iz-Iy) ω y ω z- h́
x x-hz ω y+hy ω z
I z−I y hz hy
ώ x =Mx − (Ix )
ω y ω z −
h́ x
Ix ( ) − ( )
Ix
ω y +
Ix( )
ω z

Iy ώ y =My-(Ix-Iz) ω x ω z- h́ y-hz ω x+hx ω z

I x−I z ´ hz hx
ώ y =My − (Iy )
ω y ω z −
hy
Iy ( ) −
Iy( )
ω x +
Iy( )
ω z

Iz ώ
=Mz-(Iy-Ix) ω x ω y- h́ z-hy ω x+hx ω y
z

I y−I x hy hx
ώ y =Mz −
Iz( )
ω y ω x −
h́ z
Iz ( )
−
Iz
ω x + ( )
Iz
ω ( ) y
In addition to it, the quaternion of rotation and hence the column matrix q change from one
vector measurement to another. It is well known that the rate of change of q is given by
q́=Ωq
Where

[ ]
0 −ω x −ω y −ω z
1 ω x 0 ω z −ω y
Ω=
2 ω y −ω z 0 ω x
ω z ω y −ω x 0
As q= [q1 q2 q3 q4] T

[][ ][ ]
q́ 1 0 −ω x −ω y −ω z q1
1
q́ 2 = ω x 0 ω z −ω y q2
q́ 3 2 ω y −ω z 0 ω x q3
q́ 4 ω z ω y −ω x 0 q4

Hence above derived model is for true quaternion spacecraft. However, the measured quaternion
is propagated computationally according to
q´^ =Ω
^ q^
where Ω ^ is a matrix similar to Ω, except that its entries are ~
ω x, ~ω y and ~ ω x which are
the three measured angular rates. Since the gyros, which supply these three rate components, are
not ideal, the measurements are contaminated with noise; hence
~
ώ= ώ+δ ώ
~
where δ ώ is the vector noise component and ώ is the measured angular rate vector.
Following can be written as
^ δ Ω)q
q́=( Ω+

in which δΩ is a matrix similar to Ω . The elements δΩ are the components of δ ώ ,

when the latter is resolved in system; that is, the components of δ ώ , and hence δΩ , are
the three gyro error components. Equation can be written as
q meas=q+ n1
Where:
 qestimated is the estimated quaternion of star tracker
 q is the true quaternion satellite
 n1 is mean Gaussian white noise