Performance evaluation of star sensor low frequency error calibration

• A novel scheme is proposed to calibrate the star sensor low frequency error.
• The performance of the proposed LFE calibration method is evaluated.
• The attitude determination accuracy is improved by using the proposed method.

This paper studies the star sensor low frequency error (LFE) in-flight calibration problem. The star sensor low frequency error, which is caused primarily by the periodic thermal distortion, has a great impact on the satellite attitude determination accuracy. It is formulated as a Fourier series in this paper. The low frequency error calibration is fulfilled by estimating the Fourier coefficients, which are assumed time-constant. The performance of the calibration method is evaluated through the derivation of the estimation error covariance. It is specified that the attitude determination accuracy can be improved by using the calibration method in the case that the calibration error is less than the true low frequency error parameters. The low frequency error model for numerical simulation are established based on the telemetry data from real star sensors operating under in-orbit conditions. The simulation results illustrate the efficiency of the proposed methods.