Optical Parameters Optimization for All-Time Star Sensor

Abstract

As an important development direction of star sensor technology, the All-Time star sensor technology can expand the application of star sensors to flight platforms inside the atmosphere. Due to intense atmospheric background radiation during the daytime, the commonly used star sensors operating in the visible wavelength range are significantly limited in their ability to detect stars, and hence the All-Time star sensor technology which is based on the shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging system has become an effective research direction. All-Time star sensor detection capability is significantly affected by observation conditions and, therefore, an optimized selection of optical parameters, which mainly includes the field of view (FOV) and the detection wavelength band, can effectively improve the detection performance of All-Time star sensors under harsh observation conditions. This paper uses the model simulation method to analyze and optimize the optical parameters under various observation conditions in a high-altitude environment. A main parameter among those discussed is the analysis of detection band optimization based on the SWIR band. Due to the huge cost constraints of high-altitude experiments, we conducted experiments near the ground to verify the effectiveness of the detection band selection and the correctness of the SWIR star sensor detection model, which thereby proved that the optimization of the optical parameters for high altitudes was effective and could be used as a reference.