Attitude determination for three-axis stabilized satellite

This paper presents the on-board attitude determination algorithm for LEO (Low Earth Orbit) three-axis stabilized spacecraft. Two advanced star trackers and a three-axis Inertial Reference Unit (IRU) are assumed to be attitude sensors. The gyro in the IRU provides a direct measurement of the attitude rates. However, the attitude estimation error increases with time due to the gyro drift and noise. An update filter with measurements of star trackers and/or sun sensor is designed to update these gyro drift bias and to compensate the attitude error. Kalman Filter is adapted for the on-board update filter algorithm. Simulation results will be presented to investigate the attitude pointing performance.