CROSS TRAC ENGINEERING, INC. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: S16

Description

Recent advances in the design of microsatellites have led to renewed interest in the missions that can be flown with small spacecraft and small payloads.nbsp; The CubeSat platform has prompted the development of attitude determination hardware typical of larger, more sophisticated, three axis stabilized spacecraft, including miniature gyroscopes and star cameras.nbsp; The Precision Star Scanner is a new class of attitude sensor, designed to support precision spin-stabilized CubeSat and smallsat missions by providing arcminute attitude accuracy in a size compatible with a CubeSat, in fact occupying less than half of a 1U CubeSat module.nbsp; The scientific and technological advances necessary to make this instrument possible are in place.nbsp; Robust catalogs of guide stars is available through several all-sky surveys performed at various wavelengths.nbsp; Solid state detectors and their related support electronics have been flown on a variety of missions.nbsp; The concept of using guide stars to determine the attitude of a spinning vehicle has been demonstrated using flight data.nbsp; The PSS fills the need created by the CubeSat platform for accurate attitude determination on a spin stabilized platform provided in a small package and fills the need expressed by NASA for accurate attitude determination hardware compatible with Earth observing spinning CubeSats.