Spacecraft with Very High Pointing Stability: Experiences and Lessons Learned

Technical issues associated with spacecraft with very high pointing stability requirement for short to medium term (typically, sub-micro radians for 1-100 seconds) are reviewed. Specifically, microvibration and pointing jitter, that are induced by various internal disturbance sources, is a major issue for this class of satellite. The experiences and lessons learned through the development of several satellites are presented. In particular, some basic concepts on attitude and pointing, new evaluation techniques of pointing stability, influence of high frequency microvibration on pointing and attitude, and dynamic interface between payload and bus are described in this context.