AAS 98-123

INTEGRATION OF COMET CENTROIDING, ATTITUDE DISTURBANCE REJECTION AND STEERING MIRROR CONTROL FOR THE STARDUST MISSION

L. A. Sachi, P. G. Good - Lockheed Martin Astronautics; S. Bhaskaran - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Abstract

STARDUST is a mission to fly by the comet Wild-2 in early 2004 and return samples of the coma to Earth. During its flyby of the comet nucleus, an onboard navigation camera will take images of the comet for both science data and for navigation information. A nucleus tracking algorithm closes the navigation loop for attitude determination and camera tracking control. Spacecraft control is designed to reject particle disturbances in the pitch and yaw axes such that the spacecraft stays behind its protective shields. This paper discusses the nucleus tracking, camera tracking control and attitude control used during the encounter.

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