Attitude control system for the nano-astrometry satellite Nano-JASMINE

Takaya Inamori
Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, and

Nobutada Sako and Shinichi Nakasuka

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Shinshu University, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract Purpose This paper aims to present an attitude determination and control system for a nano-astrometry satellite which requires precise angular rate control. Focus of the research is methods to achieve the requirement. Design/methodology/approach In order to obtain astrometry data, the satellite attitude should be controlled to an accuracy of 0.058. Furthermore, attitude spin rate must be controlled to an accuracy of 4 102 7 rad/s during observation. In this paper the following unique ideas to achieve these requirements are introduced: magnetic disturbance compensation and rate estimation using star blurred images. Findings This paper presents the feasibility of a high accurate attitude control system in nano- and micro-satellite missions. Practical implications This paper presents a possibility of the application of nano-satellites to remote-sensing and astronomy mission, which requires accurate attitude control. Originality/value Originalities of the paper are the methods to achieve the high accurate attitude control: magnetic disturbance compensation and angular rate estimation using star images. Keywords Nano- and micro-satellite, Attitude control, Attitude determination, Astronomy, Satellite, Aerospace Paper type Research paper

Introduction
In recent years, a number of universities have been working on space engineering projects, from practical education to scientic projects. First cubesat satellites developed at several universities including the University of Tokyo have been launched in 2003. Objective of these cubesat satellites are demonstration of 1 kg, 10 cm cubic size satellite developed with COTS (commercial off the shelf) and practical student project aiming for space engineering education. As an example of cubesat satellites, a small CMOS camera was embedded in XI-IV, which has been developed at the University of Tokyo. The camera obtains Earth images for more than seven years. For the XI-IV satellite, the attitude is stabilized by a passive attitude control system using a magnetic damper without any sensors or actuators. After successes of cubesat satellites, nano- and micro-satellite missions have been proposed for more sophisticated objectives such as remote-sensing and astronomy missions. CanX-3, also known as BRIght-star Target Explorer developed at the Toronto University in Canada, is a mission planned to make photometric observations of some of the brightest starts in the sky in order to examine these stars for variability. For the mission requirement, the satellite attitude must be controlled to arcminute accuracy. Surrey Satellite Technology Limited in the UK developed a 6.5-kg three-axis nano-satellite in 2000.
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The satellite is stabilised by a single-axis momentum wheel and three-axis MTQ, used for nutation damping and wheel momentum management. The satellite conducted several interesting experiments for reducing a magnetic moment. Picosatellite for Remote sensing and Innovative Space Missions, which is nano-remote-sensing satellite developed at the University of Tokyo, was launched in 2009. The objective of the mission is to achieve 30-m resolution images in a 8.5-kg satellite mission. The satellite determines the attitude using the TRIAD method with magnetometers and sun sensors and controls attitude using the cross-product control method with MTQs. These satellites use STTs, sun sensors, magnetometers, and gyro sensors for attitude determination, and RWs, MTQs for attitude control. Nano-Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for INfrared Exploration (Nano-JASMINE) is a nano-astrometry satellite, which is currently under development at the Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory, the University of Tokyo cooperation with National Observatory of Japan. The objective of the mission is to estimate positions of stars and to update star catalogues. In order to get accurate star position data, the attitude must be stabilized to a high accuracy during observation. For the achievement of the mission requirements, the satellite spin rate is controlled to an accuracy of 4 102 7 rad/s, which is difcult to achieve using conventional sensors and actuators. This research focuses on how to control attitude in the NanoJASMINE mission.

Objective of the Nano-JASMINE mission

Astrometry The objective of the Nano-JASMINE mission is to measure three-dimensional positions of stars to an accuracy of 1.8 mas using stellar annual parallax, which is measured by the 221

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observation of the positions of stars at different times of a year. Nano-JASMINE is mounted a 5 cm effective diameter telescope and a CCD with time delay integration (TDI) which is sensitive to z-band (wavelength , 0.9 mm). The satellite measures positions of twenty thousands of stars with a magnitude of larger than 7.5 for all-sky with an accuracy of 1.8 mas. The measurement is used to update the threedimensional positions and proper motions of the stars in the Hipparchus catalogue. The satellite also demonstrates, in the space environment, the novel type of the CCD in which the TDI is embedded for the astrometry satellite, JASMINE. Bus system For obtaining astrometry data, the satellite must achieve strict requirements during the mission. In order to get accurate star position data, the attitude should be stabilized to better than 740 mas/8.8 s accuracy during observation. To achieve the strict attitude requirement, we developed novel attitude control sensor systems and algorithms available for nanosatellites, which are presented in the paper. In addition, the temperature of the CCD detector must be controlled to less than 2508C, which is achieved by a radiation heat panel. The temperature of the telescope must be stabilized to 0.18, which is achieved by thermal shields held by adiabatic columns. If the bus system, which has the novel challenging techniques, is demonstrated in orbit, nano- and micro-satellite is applicable for missions which require strict attitude control and thermal requirements. These demonstrated techniques open up the possibility of application of nano-satellites to more sophisticated missions. One of the objectives of the NanoJASMINE mission is the demonstration of this novel bus system in orbit.

Table I Specication of the Nano-JASMINE satellite

Satellite Body Mass Orbit Mission Optics Diameter Focal length Detector FOV AOCS Attitude control requirement Attitude rate requirement
Sensor 508 508 512 mm3 35 kg Sun-synchronous orbit Infrared astrometry 5 cm 1.67 m CCD in TDI modes 0.58 0.058 4 102 7 rad/s 2 102 6 rad/s Sun sensor, coarse magnetometer, precise magnetometer, mems gyro, FOG, STT RW, magnetic canceler, MTQ S-band: 100 kbps S-band: 1 kbps

Actuator Communication Down Up

Figure 1 Overview of the Nano-JASMINE EM model

Telescope Magnetic canceller

Overview of Nano-JASMINE
Nano-JASMINE is designed as a micro-astrometry satellite which achieves the strict requirements for the attitude and thermal systems. To achieve the challenging requirements, the satellite bus system uses several techniques. Following subsections describe overview of each subsystem. Table I shows the specication of the Nano-JASMINE satellite. Structure Nano-JASMINE is a 50 cm cubic size, 35-kg micro-satellite. An optical bench is installed in the center of the satellite. The telescope and the AOCS devices are attached to the optical bench, which guarantees misalignment between the devices. The moment of inertia of the satellite is controlled to be spherical using dummy mass on the ground, and the offset between the center of gravity and the center of air pressure are also adjusted on the ground prior to the launch. As a result, the gravity gradient, the air pressure, and the solar pressure disturbance torques have a small effect on the satellite attitude, which makes easier to control the attitude precisely (Figure 1). C&DH Figure 2 shows the system block diagram of the NanoJASMINE satellite. Nano-JASMINE has MicroBlaze processors which are congured in a Virtex-5 FPGA. Two Virtex-5 FPGAs are installed for the bus and the mission system which have three MicroBlaze processors in each FPGA for AOCS calculation and image processing. A MicroBlaze 222

MTQ

Optical bench

STT

FOG

processor congured in the bus Virtex-5 FPGA works as the main processor, which is connected with all systems and components in the satellite. A PIC processor, which is more reliable for radiation effects, monitors the main processor and restarts the Virtex-5 FPGAs, when the PIC processors detects damages of the main processor caused from the radiation. Thermal In the Nano-JASMINE mission, the satellite observes stars in z-band (0.9 mm) to get data without effects of interstellar gas between stars. Therefore, the temperature of the CCD must

Attitude control system Takaya Inamori, Nobutada Sako and Shinichi Nakasuka

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal Volume 83 Number 4 2011 221 228

Figure 2 Block diagram of the Nano-JASMINE satellite

H/W CCD

PIC H/W Data strage Tx, Rx SUN senso Mems gyro FOG Coarse magnetometer Precise magnetometer GPS

Microblaze0 Main OBC

Microblaze3 Mission OBC (Image processing)

H/W(AOCS) RW Magetic canceller MTQ STT

Microblaze1 AOCS main

Microblaze4 AOCS sub1 (Attitude estimation)

Microblaze2 AOCS sub0 (Orbit, IGRF)

Microblaze5 AOCS sub2 (Magnetic moment estimation)

FPGA bus

FPGA mission

be less than 2508C during the observation to reduce thermal noise. In addition, the temperature stability of the telescope frame must be less than 0.18 to avoid the effect of structural distortion. The requirement for the temperature is achieved by the radiation plate which is mounted in the Z panel. During the observation, the satellite is controlled to an attitude in which the direction of the Z panel is opposite from the sunshine. The requirement for the temperature stability is achieved by the structure which covers the telescope with the thermal shields. Adiabatic columns, which do not transfer heat, hold the telescope and the thermal shields. Optics Figure 3 shows the telescope which is embedded in NanoJASMINE. In order to separate the effect of satellite angular velocity from star images, the telescope has two observation directions in which the satellite obtains star images Figure 3 Telescope for star observation

simultaneously. For the observation, the satellite employs TDI mode, in which CCD transfers pixel electrons to next pixel and integrates charge to suppress read-out-noise. The TDI mode makes possible to keep observing clear stars in longer exposure time, even though the satellite spins around the z-axis in the orbital angular velocity.

ACS requirements and design

In the Nano-JASMINE mission, there are two attitude requirements: orientation of the telescope and angular velocity of the telescope. For the requirement of the orientation, the attitude must be controlled with an accuracy of 0.058. The attitude requirement can be achieved using a star trucker (STT) and a bre optical gyro (FOG), which have been used in many satellite missions. For the requirement of the angular velocity, the angular rate must be controlled to the TDI rate. The error of the angular velocity from the TDI rate must be better than 4 102 7 rad/s for the requirement of 740 mas/8.8 s. The above requirement implies attitude sensing and actuation capabilities are beyond the current nano-satellite state of the art. To achieve the requirement, the satellite determines and controls the attitude using star blurred images from the mission telescope. Specically, this method assesses the quality of star images based on how blurred it appears. To get blurred star images, the satellite must stabilize the attitude with sensors such as the FOG before the observation phase. Nano-JASMINE stabilizes the attitude step-by-step before the observation using several sensors and actuators. Table II shows requirements and AOCS devices for each attitude control phase in the mission. As shown in Table II, Nano-JASMINE chooses devices for the AOCS from coarse to precise sensors and actuators. Table III shows specication of the AOCS devises which are embedded in the Nano223

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Table II Attitude control phase for the Nano-JASMINE mission

Phase Initial Coarse control Unloading Precise control Observation Requirement 1.0 10 rad/s 1.0 102 3 rad/s 108 1.0 102 5 rad/s 108 1.0 102 5 rad/s 0.058 x- and y-axis 1.0 102 6 rad/s z-axis 4.0 102 7 rad/s 0.058
22

Sensor Magnetometer Magnetometer, sun sensor Gyro (mems) Magnetometer, FOG STT STT FOG Mission telescope

Actuator MTQ MTQ RW, MTQ MC (high-resolution MTQ) RW MC RW MC

Table III ACS equipments

Component STT FOG Mems gyro Sun sensor Coarse magnetometer Precise magnetometer MTQ RW MC (high-resolution MTQ) GPS Value Accuracy: 50 as Accuracy: 1.0 102 6 rad/s Accuracy: 1.0 102 3 rad/s Accuracy: 1.08 Accuracy: 500 nT Accuracy: 100 nT MAX: 2.5 Am2 Angular momentum 5.8 102 4 Nms Max torque 2.3 102 5 Nm MAX: 0.6 Am2 Accuracy: 5 102 5 Am2 Note Two STT are mounted in the x- and y-directions Three-axes FOG Three-axes gyro Two-axes sun sensors, which are installed in each panel. panels For attitude determination, three axes magnetometer For RMM estimation, three-axes magnetometer Three-axes magnetometer Four skew reaction wheels For compensation of the magnetic disturbance For orbit determination

JASMINE satellite. In the initial and coarse attitude control phase, the satellite uses six sun sensors, two types of magnetometer, and three-axes MTQs. For more precise attitude control, three-axes FOGs and two STTs are used for the AOCS. Following subsections show simulation results in which certain assumptions are made about the satellite design and the orbit. The satellite is assumed to have dimension of 508 508 512 mm3, principal moment of inertia of 1.6 kgm2 in all axes, 1-cm offset of the center of mass from the geometric center, and the residual magnetic moment of 0.1 Am2 about each body axis. The orbit is assumed to be a 700-km circular dawn/dusk sun-synchronous orbit. ACS modes Initial attitude and Coarse attitude control phase After release from the launcher, the satellite reduces the rotation speed using a simple B-dot rate damping controller, which needs only the measurement of the geomagnetic eld. In this initial phase, the attitude is stabilized with an accuracy of 1 102 3 rad/s. After the stabilization, the satellite moves to coarse attitude control phase. In the coarse control phase, the satellite attitude is controlled using the sensor measurement from the sun sensors, the magnetometers, and the mems gyros to an accuracy of 58, so that, the STT begins collecting clear images. The attitude is estimated by the QUEST method. Required torque is calculated using the quaternion feedback controller. This phase is required to stabilize STT pointing sufciently to permit star tracker operation to 224

commence. To achieve the requirements, the angular rate in the z-axis is controlled to the orbital angular velocity in 1 102 3 rad/s accuracy. The observation directions ( x, y) in which STT and mission telescope are attached are controlled in order to obtain star images and not to see the earth as shown in Figure 4. Figure 5 shows a simulation result of the coarse attitude control phase. The red, green, and blue lines indicate the angular velocity about each principal body axis, and the black line shows the orbital angular velocity. Figure 4 Attitude in the observation phase
Direction for observation Direction for observation

Satellite

Earth

Attitude control system Takaya Inamori, Nobutada Sako and Shinichi Nakasuka

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Figure 5 Simulation result of the coarse control phase

0.002 Angular velocity(rad/s) 0.0015 0.001 0.0005
X-axis Y-axis Z-axis Orbital rate

The angular velocity is controlled to better than 2 102 6 rad/s accuracy, which achieves the requirements for an accuracy of 1 102 5 rad/s. In the end of this phase, the satellite obtains star images from mission telescope. Unloading phase In the precise control phase and observation phase, the attitude is controlled using the RWs. After the saturation of the RW angular momentum, the angular momentum is unloaded with the MTQs. In the Nano-JASMINE mission, 90 percent of the mission period is used for the observation because of the requirements of all-sky observation. To achieve the requirement, the unloading operation is completed an orbital period in every ten orbit observation. In this phase, a cross-product controller is used for the MTQs, in which the satellite calculates the required magnetic moment as the outer product of the angular momentum and the geomagnetic eld. In order to allow reacquisition of clear star images quickly after the unloading operation, the satellite unloads the angular momentum with keeping the attitude stable. For this reason, the RW outputs torque for compensation of the torque from the MTQ. In addition, the magnetic disturbance, which causes attitude instability, is cancelled using the MC. Figures 7 and 8 show a simulation result of the unloading phase. In Figures 7 and 8, the blue, pink, and green lines indicate the angular momentum and the angular velocity about each principal body axis, respectively. Figure 7 shows the history of the RW angular momentum in the simulation. Within an orbital period, the satellite unloads the angular momentum of the RW. Figure 8 shows the history of the Figure 7 Simulation result of the angular momentum in the unloading phases
0.002 Angular momentum (Nms) 0.001 0.0008 0.0006 0.0004 0.0002 0 0.0002 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 Time (s) True Estimate True

0
0.0005 0.001 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 Time (s) 5,000 6,000

The angular velocity is controlled using the cross-product method with the MTQs. In the simulation, the angular velocity of the z-axis is controlled to the orbital angular velocity, and the angular velocity of the x- and y-axes are stabilized in order to obtain clear star images with the mission telescope. Precise attitude control phase In the precise attitude control phase, the angular velocity must be controlled to 1 102 5 rad/s accuracy, so that the telescope including the CCD observes clear star images. The STT is the primary attitude measurement source, and the RW is the primary actuator in the phase. The magnetic canceller (MC) is also used for cancellation of the residual magnetic moment, which causes the magnetic disturbance. An extended Kalman lter is adopted for attitude estimation in order to cancel bias noise of the gyro. The attitude is controlled using the quaternion feedback method to an accuracy of 0.58. Figure 6 shows a simulation result in the precise attitude control phase. The focus of the simulation is attitude determination method using the EKF and attitude control method using RWs. In Figure 6, the green, blue, and red dots show FOG measurements, estimated angular velocity using the EKF, and the true value of the angular velocity, respectively. The FOG measurements contain white noise and random drift noise. Figure 6 shows the random drift noise is cancelled using the EKF which estimates the quaternion of the satellite and the random drift noise of the gyro. In this simulation, the angular velocity is controlled using a PD controller by the RW. Figure 6 Simulation result of the precise control phase
Estimate FOG True

6.0e6 Angular velocity (rad/s) 4.0e6

Figure 8 Simulation result of the angular velocity in the unloading phase

2.5e-006 2e-006 Angular velocity (rad/s) 1.5e-006 1e-006 5e-007 0 5e-007 1e-006 1.5e-006 2e-006 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 Time (s) X Y Z

2.0e6 0 2.0e6 4.0e6 0 100 200 300 400 Time (s) 500 600 700

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angular velocity in this phase. It is notable that the graph shows an error from the spin rate versus time. The satellite keeps the attitude stabilized with an accuracy of 3 102 6 rad/s during the unloading operation using a compensation of the residual magnetic moment. After the unloading phase, the satellite moves to the observation phase and obtains clear star images rapidly, because the satellite attitude is stabilized during the unloading operation to better than 1 102 5 rad/s, which is the requirement for obtaining star images using the mission telescope.

Attitude control methods in the observation phase

In the observation phase, Nano-JASMINE estimates the angular velocity using star blurred images. The angular velocity is controlled to the TDI rate, which is synchronized to the orbital angular velocity. In order to obtain angular velocity from the star images observed by the mission telescope, the attitude needs to be stabilized to better than 1 102 5 rad/s using the STT and the FOG. With larger angular velocity, star images become blurring and unclear; therefore it is difcult to detect star images. The TDI speed is set to 0 rad/s in the x- and y-axis, and 1 102 3 rad/s, which is synchronized to the orbital angular velocity, in the z-axis. In this phase, the error angular velocity form the TDI speed must be less than 2 102 6 rad/s in the x- and y-axis, and 4 102 7 rad/s in the z-axis. In addition, the satellite also must survey all-sky to update star catalogues in two years. In order to achieve the requirement of the all-sky survey, the satellite changes the observation eld in the every unloading operation. The following subsections show attitude control methods for the observation phase. Compensation of the magnetic disturbance Table IV shows attitude disturbances in the Nano-JASMINE mission. As shown in Table IV, the magnetic torque is assumed to be dominant disturbance, which causes attitude instability. This effect must be cancelled because of the following two reasons. First, the magnetic disturbance makes Nano-JASMINE more difcult to control the angular velocity precisely within 4 102 7 rad/s accuracy and to achieve the requirements using only conventional feedback controllers. Secondary, with the magnetic disturbance, the RW is saturated with angular momentum. The satellite must keep observing more than ten orbital periods from the requirement for all-sky observation. In this case, the satellite cannot keep observing stars less than two orbital periods, because the satellite must stop observing and unload the angular momentum from the RW, which does not meet the requirement. From these reasons, the magnetic disturbance is compensated before the observation using other actuator except for the RW. Table IV Attitude disturbance for the Nano-JASMINE mission
Disturbance Magnetic Aerodynamics Solar radiation Gravity gradient Magnitude (Nm) 5.0 10 1.6 102 9 1.0 102 9 1.0 102 9
26

The effect of the magnetic disturbance can be cancelled using an MC, which is a high-resolution MTQ. The satellite has a residual magnetic moment, which interferes with the geomagnetic eld and causes the magnetic disturbance. If the satellite estimates and cancels the residual magnetic moment using an MC, the geomagnetic eld does not interfere with the satellite magnetic moment. The residual magnetic moment must be estimated accurately, so that the satellite compensates the magnetic disturbance precisely to achieve the strict mission requirement. This estimation is achieved using an extended Kalman lter. In the Kalman lter, the state vector is sixdimensional vector consisting of angular velocity and residual magnetic moment of a satellite. The measurement vector is three-dimensional vector consisting of angular velocity from a FOG. In this estimation, noises of the FOG and the magnetic sensor cause large estimation error, which is cancelled before the estimation. In the Nano-JASMINE mission, bias noise of the FOG is estimated using the STT in the MicroBraze 3 processor and bias noise of the magnetometer is estimated in the MicroBlaze 5 processor, as shown in Figure 2. With the calibrated sensor data, the residual magnetic moment is estimated more accurately. Figure 9 shows a simulation result of the estimation of the residual magnetic moment. In the graph, the red, green, and blue lines indicate estimation error of the residual magnetic moment about each principal body axis. In Nano-JASMINE, the magnetic moment is estimated to an accuracy of 1 102 4 Am2 within an orbital period. After the compensation of the magnetic moment, the magnitude of the magnetic disturbance becomes 5 102 9 Nm, which makes Nano-JASMINE control the attitude more precisely. Angular rate estimation using star images In the observation phase, the angular velocity must be controlled to the TDI rate within an accuracy of 4 102 7 rad/s, which is difcult to achieve using only conventional sensors to determine the angular rate. In NanoJASMINE, a novel angular rate estimation method is introduced. This method assesses the quality of star images based on how blurred it appears. Figure 4 shows the satellite attitude during the observation. The satellite has two observation directions: x- and y-axes. In order to keep observing more than ten orbital periods, the satellite spins in z-axis synchronized to the orbital angular velocity. In this case, the star images which are obtained with the mission telescope become blurred and unclear images, which causes difculty to Figure 9 Simulation result of the residual magnetic moment estimation
100 10 1 Error (Am^2) 0.1 0.01 0.001 0.0001 1e-005 1e-006 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 Time (s) 2,500 3,000 X Y Z

Note Magnetic moment 0.1 Am2 Altitude 700 km Altitude 700 km

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analyze the position of the stars for the astrometry mission. To obtain clear star images, Nano-JASMINE uses TDI for the CCD detector. In the Nano-JASMINE mission, the TDI rate is synchronize to the orbital angular velocity, thus angular velocity of the satellite must be controlled to the orbital angular velocity with an accuracy of 4 102 7 rad/s. Figures 10-12 show the technique to determine angular rate using star blurred images. First, the satellite extracts each 5 9 pixels star image to assess the blurriness of stars. As shown in Figure 10, each star image contains angular rate information about two axes. If the satellite is unstable in the x- or y-axis in the body frame, star images are extracted in the vertical axis of a CCD star image. If the satellite is unstable in the z-axis in the body frame, the images are extracted in the horizontal axis of a CCD star image, as shown in Figure 10. The satellite obtains star images from two directions which are both captured on a single CCD imager (the x- and y-axis in the satellite body frame). The magnitude of the angular velocity is estimated from line spread function (LSF) which is Figure 10 Relationship between star images and angular velocity

Figure 12 Relationship between variance of LSF and angular velocity

14 12 LSF variance 10 8 6 4 2 0 1e-005 5e-006 5e-006 0 Angular velocity (rad/s) 1e-005
Horizontal Vertical

Figure 11 Method to calculate line spread function

CCD 1pixel PSF by a single star

calculated from star image compressed information to each axis as shown in Figure 11. Variance of LSF has relationship to angular velocity. It is notable that the angular velocity which is estimated by star images is error from the TDI rate in the observation phase. The relationship between attitude instability and LSF is expressed as shown in Figure 12, which is expressed as a quadratic function. In the graph, the red and green lines show the LSF variance of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis in a star image, respectively. Figure 12 shows that the LSF variance of the vertical axis is lager than that of the horizontal axis, because the PSF of the telescope is ellipse as shown in Figure 11, which is caused from the property of the optic. If the variance of LSF is obtained by star images, angular rate can be calculated using the relationship. Figure 13 shows a simulation result of angular velocity control using star images. Because the relationship between the angular velocity and the LSF variance is express as the quadratic function, the slope in the vertex of the function, when the attitude is completely stabilized, is nearly zero. Therefore, in the vertex of the function, signal-to-noise ratio of the angular velocity is relatively small, which means the satellite cannot obtain precise attitude information, when the angular velocity of the satellite is completely the TDI rate. In order to obtain precise attitude information, the satellite tries to control the angular velocity with an offset from the TDI rate. In this simulation, the offset is set to 2 102 7 rad/s in the z-axis and to 1 102 6 rad/s in the x- and y-axis. In Figure 13, the red, green, and blue lines indicate the angular velocity about each principal body axis. The black line shows the requirement for the z-axis, and the grey line for the x- and y-axes, respectively. The graph shows an error from the TDI rate versus time. Figure 13 Simulation result of angular rate control using star images

Summation LSF for xy axis

Summation

2e-006 1.8e-006 1.6e-006 1.4e-006 1.2e-006 1e-006 8e-007 6e-007 4e-007 2e-007 0 0 200 400 600

Angular velocity (rad/s)

X Y Z

LSF for z axis

800 1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600 1,800 2,000 Time (s)

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Figure 13 shows that angular velocity is controlled using star images within an accuracy of 4 102 7 rad/s in the z-axis and 2 102 6 rad/s in the x- and y-axis.

Conclusion
This paper considers the Nano-JASMINE attitude control system, focusing on how to control and stabilize the attitude precisely in a 35-kg nano-satellite. In order to obtain accurate astrometry data, the spin rate must be controlled to an accuracy of better than 4 102 7 rad/s, which is difcult to achieve using only conventional attitude control systems and methods. In this paper, the following unique ideas to achieve the requirement are introduced: magnetic disturbance compensation and angular rate estimation using star blurred images. In addition, before the observation phase, the satellite is controlled to the attitude for star observation and stabilized using an MTQ and a RW, and the attitude is acquired by STT, FOG, and magnetometer measurements. Based on simulation results, the paper concludes the feasibility of these techniques to control the attitude in Nano-JASMINE. If the attitude control system, which has novel challenging techniques, is demonstrated in orbit, nano- and microsatellite is applicable for missions which require strict attitude control requirements. These demonstrated techniques will open up the possibility of application of nano-satellite to more sophisticated missions.

Further reading
Eric, P.C., Cordell, C.G., Daniel, D.K. and Robert, E.Z. (2005), Formation ying demonstration missions enabled by CanX nanosatellite technology, paper presented at the 19th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, 8-11 August. Kieran, A.C., Slavek, R. and Robert, E.Z. (2004), Arc-minute nanosatellite attitude control: enabling technology for the BRITE stellar photometry mission, paper presented at the 18th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, 9-12 August. Nobutada, S., Yoichi, H., Takashi, T., Takaya, I. and Shinichi, N. (2007a), Nano-JASMINE: a small infrared astrometry satellite, paper presented at the 21st Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan. Nobutada, S., Yoichi, H., Takashi, T., Takaya, I. and Shinichi, N. (2007b), Nano-satellite attitude stabilization method using starimages, paper presented at the IFAC Symposium on Automatic Control in Aerospace, Haute-Garonne, Toulouse. Richard, L. and Craig, U. (2000), The SNAP-1 machine vision system, paper presented at the 14th Annual AIAA/ USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, 21-24 August. Ryu, F., Ernesto, T., Yuya, N., Masaki, N., Akito, E., Cheng, Y., Kenji, N., Yuta, N., Fumiki, S., Tsukasa, F., Takeshi, E. and Shinichi, N. (2006), Technology demonstration on

University of Tokyos Pico-satellite XI-V and its effective operation result using ground station network, Acta Astronautica, Vol. 61 Nos 7-8, pp. 707-11. Shinichi, N. and Saburo, M. (2000), The CanSatproject: Japanese and US universities efforts to produce hand-made micro-satellites, Journal of the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Vol. 48 No. 562, pp. 589-96. Shinichi, N., Nobutada, S., Hironori, S., Yuya, N., Takashi, E. and Mitsuhito, K. (2010), Evolution from education to practical use in University of Tokyos nano-satellite activities, Acta Astronautica, Vol. 66 Nos 7-8, pp. 1099-105. Shinichi, N., Hironori, S., Yoshiki, S., Takeshi, M., Kanichi, K., Hideaki, K., Takanori, O., Hidenori, T., Shinichi, S. and Chisato, K. (2007), A novel satellite concept panel extension satellite (PETSAT) consisting of plug-in, modular, function alpanels, paper presented at the 21st Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan. Steyn, W.H. and Hashida, Y. (2001), In-orbit attitude performance of the three-axis stabilised SNAP-1 nanosatellite, paper presented at the 15th Annual AIAA/ USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, 13-16 August. Stuart, E., Karan, S., Stephen, M., Tarun, T. and Robert, E.Z. (2006), Adaptable, multi-mission design of CanX nanosatellites, paper presented at the 20th Annual AIAA/ USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, 14-17 August. Takaya, I. (2009a), In-orbit magnetic disturbance estimation and compensation using UKF in nano-satellite mission, paper presented at the AIAA Guidance Navigation and Control Conference, Chicago, IL. Takaya, I. (2009b), Magnetic dipole moment estimation and compensation for accurate attitude control in nano-satellite missions, paper presented at the International Astronautical Congress, Daejon. Takaya, I., Nobutada, S., Toshiki, T. and Shinichi, N. (2009), Attitude estimation using star images in Nano-JASMINE mission, paper presented at the 27th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science, Tsukuba. Takaya, I., Yoo, I., Yuta, S., Yuki, S., Toshiki, T., Mitsuhito, K. and Shinichi, N. (2009), Attitude determination and control system in Pico-satellite for remote-sensing and innovative space missions (PRISM), paper presented at the 27th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science, Tsukuba. Yuya, N. and Shinichi, N. (2006), Ground Station Network to improve operation efciency of small satellite and its operation scheduling method, paper presented at the International Astronautical Congress, Valencia.

Corresponding author
Takaya Inamori can be contacted at: inamori@space.t.u-tokyo. ac.jp

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