The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbiter (ODY), and Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) are all NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) spacecraft with Honeywell Miniature Inertial Measurement Units (MIMUs) onboard. The MIMU inertial sensor data is used for spacecraft attitude pointing and stabilization supporting thrust control for maneuvers and vehicle vector determination for critical events and spacecraft fault recovery. All three spacecraft are in the Extended Mission phase, meaning each spacecraft is operating beyond original Prime Mission requirements. With the MIMUs at or nearing the end of their operational capabilities due to the nominal evolution of Laser Intensity Monitor (LIM) levels, the telemetry from these three missions offers insight into the long-term behavior of MIMUs in spacecraft operations. This paper discusses the long-term behavior of LIM levels for Honeywell Block 1 and Block 3.0 MIMUs onboard three NASA JPL orbital spacecraft operating past Prime Mission and for extended periods of time (up to 11.5 years) in space. This paper also offers an analysis method to remove the effects of temperature sensitivity from the LIM measurements to improve LIM trending for management of spacecraft operational life.
LONG-TERM BEHAVIOR OF MINIATURE INERTIAL MEASUREMENT UNITS (MIMUS) ONBOARD EXTENDED-MISSION MARS AND EARTH ORBITERS
Proceedings of the 44th Annual American Astronautical Society Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, 2022 ; Chapter : 96 ; 1721-1734
2024-01-01
14 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English