AROS

As part of AROS, new software and hardware technologies for miniature star sensors are being developed and tested. These star sensors are to be used on so-called pico- and nanosatellites - satellites that weigh just a few kilograms and are correspondingly small.

When developing star sensors, numerous factors have to be taken into account that influence each other: Size, mass, energy consumption, sensitivity, accuracy, database size, data rate, interfaces, etc. It is therefore often not optimal to develop a standard sensor that can be used on different satellite missions. Depending on the type of mission and satellite class, it may be necessary to develop or adapt different star sensors in a step-by-step process in order to find a suitable or even optimal combination of properties for the satellite missions. A property decision usually has consequences for a number of other parameters, which significantly complicates the search for the optimum. Automating this search process is part of the AROS research project. An algorithm is being developed that takes over this "approximation process" - or at least significantly improves it. Ultimately, two different star sensors are to be built and tested.

The project is funded by the Space Agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) under the funding code FKZ 50RM1522 with funds from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi).

Contact:

• Oleksii Balagurin (Project Manager)
• Tobias Greiner
• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hakan Kayal