Space Validation of the Inertial Stellar Compass

Draper’s Inertial Stellar Compass (ISC) is a real-time, miniature, low power stellar inertial attitude determination system, composed of a wide field-of-view active pixel sensor (APS) star camera and a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) gyro assembly, with associated processing and power electronics. The integrated APS and MEMS gyro technologies provide a 3-axis attitude determination system with accuracy better than 0.1 degree at very low power and mass. The attitude knowledge provided by the ISC is applicable to a wide range of space missions that may include the use of highly maneuverable, stabilized, or even tumbling spacecraft. Under the guidance of NASA’s New Millennium Program’s ST-6 project, Draper has developed and now flight validated the ISC. Its completion via flight validation represents a breakthrough in real-time, miniature attitude determination sensors. This paper describes the space validation component and initial on-orbit results of the ISC