In this section, you can access to the latest technical information related to the FUTURE project topic.

Characterization and compensation of thermo-elastic instability of SWARM optical bench on micro Advanced Stellar Compass attitude observations

Launched into orbit on November 22, 2013, the Swarm constellation of three satellites precisely measures magnetic signal of the Earth. To ensure the high accuracy of magnetic observation by vector magnetometer (VFM), its inertial attitude is precisely determined by µASC (micro Advanced Stellar Compass). Each of the three Swarm satellites is equipped with three µASC Camera Head Units (CHU) mounted on a common optical bench (OB), which has a purpose of transference of the attitude from the star trackers to the magnetometer measurements. Although substantial pre-launch analyses were made to maximize thermal and mechanical stability of the OB, significant signal with thermal signature is discovered when comparing relative attitude between the three CHU's (Inter Boresight Angle, IBA). These misalignments between CHU's, and consequently geomagnetic reference frame, are found to be correlated with the period of angle between Swarm orbital plane and the Sun (ca. 267 days), which suggests sensitivity of optical bench system on temperature variation.

» Author: M. Herceg, P.S. Jørgensen, J.L. Jørgensen

» Reference: Acta Astronautica, Volume 137

» Publication Date: 01/08/2017

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