Micro technology based sun sensor

There is increasing interest among universities in the scientific and educational possibilities of picosatellites base on the CubeSat 5 concept. Due to sever mass and dimension constraints place on this type of satellites, new approaches and ideas regarding different systems arises to accommodate various payloads and platforms. The conventional and commercial actuators and attitude sensors are in most cases not suited for these satellites, which again lead to new design considerations. Another important property is the launch cost, which can be kept relatively low as a result of the concept. This fact enables students to get hands-on experience with satellite systems design and project management. This paper describes the attitude control and determination system of a Danish student satellite (DTUsat), with main focus on the two-axis MOEMS sun sensor developed. On the magnetotorquer controlled DTUsat sun sensors are needed along with a magnetometer to obtain unambiguous attitude determination for the ACDS and the payloads - an electrodynamic tether and a camera. The accuracy needed was not obtainable by employing conventional attitude sensors. Hence a linear slit sensor was designed by utilizing resources from space and micro processing related fields. Including driver electronics and packaging the sensor system has a mass below 10g with a field of view of above 60 degrees and an expected resolution below 0.1 degrees.