Testing of spacecraft orientation and stabilization systems using starry sky simulators

The paper investigates the need to create a method of simulating the starry sky for testing spacecraft and conducting tests of orientation and stabilization systems in laboratory conditions. Modern space exploration and, as a consequence, the complexity of technical requirements for flight support facilities are constantly increasing, respectively, the requirements for ensuring the accuracy of determining the position and orientation of the spacecraft are increasing. The history of the development of astroorientation devices and, in particular, stellar sensors is given. The modern stage of development of stellar sensors came with the advent of matrix radiation receivers: charged coupled device (CCD) and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) video matrices. Such stellar sensors are no longer tied to individual, predefined stars, but determine their orientation from images of groups of stars visible in the field of view of the device. Examples are given for their field of application, namely, determining the orientation of the sensor, pointing some device mounted on a spacecraft, and others. Modern requirements for astrogation are given. The basic principles of ground-based testing of the spacecraft orientation and stabilization system using starry sky simulators are considered. This is a stage of development and autonomous tests on a hardware and software stand of semi-natural modeling. To date, the ISS JSC enterprise has a complex modeling stand for conducting these types of spacecraft tests, using methods of both mathematical and semi-natural modeling, which includes various simulators of the starry sky. The development of these simulators has a long history, a comparative table of previously used simulators is given. The structures of both past and modern simulators of the starry sky are shown. The conclusions state the need to create a method that will simulate the rotation of the spacecraft at speeds up to 15–30 °/s. This method will allow testing the orientation and stabilization system of modern spacecraft.