The Canopus star sensor, developed for the technology satellite designated X4, due for launch in 1974, and its role in spacecraft stabilization, with respect to the sun and the star Canopus, is described. It forms part of a 3-axis attitude control system with a number of sensors, enabling the spacecraft to be attitude stabilized within the reference frame of celestial coordinates, defined by sun and stars. The modes of operation performed by the spacecraft to check the parameters of the sensor and enable subsidiary experiments to be carried out by the sensor during the mission are briefly described. (Author)
An Experimental Canopus Star Sensor
1972
32 pages
Report
No indication
English
An Experimental Canopus Star Sensor
NTIS | 1972
|Canopus star sensor will provide method to correct surveyor course
Engineering Index Backfile | 1964
The mariner iv canopus sensor.
NTRS | 1965
|The Mariner IV Canopus sensor.
NTRS | 1966
|British Library Online Contents | 2017