Related papers: Precise Pointing and Stabilization Performance for…
Balloon-borne astronomy is unique in that it allows for a level of image stability, resolution, and optical backgrounds that are comparable to space-borne systems due to greatly reduced atmospheric interference, but at a fraction of the…
At a fraction the total cost of an equivalent orbital mission, scientific balloon-borne platforms, operating above 99.7% of the Earth's atmosphere, offer attractive, competitive, and effective observational capabilities -- namely space-like…
An attitude determination system for balloon-borne experiments is presented. The system provides pointing information in azimuth and elevation for instruments flying on stratospheric balloons over Antarctica. In-flight attitude is given by…
Balloon-borne astronomy is a unique tool that allows for a level of image stability and significantly reduced atmospheric interference without the often prohibitive cost and long development time-scale that are characteristic of space-borne…
Air-bearing platforms for simulating the rotational dynamics of satellites require highly precise ground truth systems. Unfortunately, commercial motion capture systems used for this scope are complex and expensive. This paper shows a novel…
Optical navigation on a CubeSat must rely on the best extraction of the directions of some beacons from on-board images. We present an experiment on OPS-SAT, a CubeSat of the European Space Agency (ESA), that will characterize an onboard…
The Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) is a near-diffraction-limited 0.5m telescope that launched via NASA's super-pressure balloon technology on April 16, 2023. SuperBIT achieved precise pointing control through the…
This paper addresses the lack of a general methodology for the controller synthesis of an optical instrument on-board a stratospheric balloon-borne platform, such as a telescope or siderostat, to meet pointing requirements that are becoming…
We describe the development and implementation of a light-weight, fully autonomous 2-axis pointing and stabilization system designed for balloon-borne astronomical payloads. The system is developed using off-the-shelf components such as…
Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites are essential for providing accurate navigation and timing information worldwide. Operating in medium Earth orbit (MEO), these satellites must maintain precise Earth-pointing attitudes to transmit…
The Attitude Determination and Control System is one of the critical boards of any satellite, specially the micro-satellites. The ADCS is the bridge linking sensors data to actuators by several computationally complex algorithms such as…
Vision-based pose estimation plays a crucial role in the autonomous navigation of flight platforms. However, the field of view and spatial resolution of the camera limit pose estimation accuracy. This paper designs a divergent…
The E and B experiment (EBEX) is a balloon-borne telescope designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background with 8' resolution employing a gondola scanning with speeds of order degree per second. In January 2013, EBEX…
This paper focuses on the attitude pointing control problem under pointing-forbidden constraints and performance constraints. The spacecraft is expected to align its sensor's boresight to a desired direction, while the terminal control…
CubeSats are emerging as low-cost tools to perform astronomy, exoplanet searches and earth observation. These satellites can target an object for science observation for weeks on end. This is typically not possible on larger missions where…
We have developed two redundant daytime star cameras to provide the fine pointing solution for the balloon-borne submillimeter telescope, BLAST. The cameras are capable of providing a reconstructed pointing solution with an absolute…
We present the activities carried out to calibrate and characterise the performance of the elements of attitude control and measurement on board the Herschel spacecraft. The main calibration parameters and the evolution of the indicators of…
We present a method for attaining sub-arcsecond pointing stability during sub- orbital balloon flights, as designed for in the High Altitude Lensing Observatory (HALO) concept. The pointing method presented here has the potential to perform…
Accurate and stable spacecraft pointing is a requirement of many astronomical observations. Pointing particularly challenges nanosatellites because of an unfavorable surface area to mass ratio and proportionally large volume required for…
SuperBIT was a 0.5-meter near-ultraviolet to near-infrared wide-field telescope that launched on a NASA superpressure balloon into the stratosphere from New Zealand for a 45-night flight. SuperBIT acquired multi-band images of galaxy…