Importance

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Abstract

Interactive graphical attitude maneuver planning computer system for planning satellite attitude maneuvers allows a user to immediately see where star trackers are pointing when the attitude and orbital position of a satellite are varied on the computer system. The computer system includes a graphics display on which the celestial sphere, centered at the satellite rather than the Earth, is projected. The horizontal axis of the display measures the Right Ascension angle, while the vertical axis measures the Declination angle. The display shows, in addition to stars, the region of the sky occluded by the Earth and interference regions around the moon, sun and planets, in which the star trackers should not point, and the fields of view of the star trackers. The attitude of the satellite is adjusted by means of graphical slider bars which vary the roll, pitch and yaw angle rotations. As the slider bars are adjusted, the star trackers move across the sky, and the stars pass through their fields of view, making it immediately obvious to the user where the star trackers are pointing, whether or not they will detect certain stars, and whether or not they will point too closely to the Earth, moon, sun, or planets.

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First Claim