Dp 310 en
Development of an attitude estimator for the
Author: Alexander Nucera
The object of this thesis is to illustrate the objectives, development methodology and results of xNooch, a software tool designed and developed by this writer, to estimate the obtainable accuracy of the attitude determination of PEARL, a project of the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, in collaboration with Utah State University. The software was later developed into a more exible tool, evolving to become a valid pre-mission simulator, and both an on-board and post-mission estimator. PEARL is the prototype for a constellation of satellites, whose mission would be a more accurate sounding of Earth's time-varying magnetosphere, and Earth's electric �eld. xNooch will help determine if PEARL meets the minimum requirements for its mission, with its current sensing equipment, or if any redesigning must be applied; it will guide the designing of the communication protocol, and more speci�cally the telemetry rates; it will provide accuracy information on the collected data, after the ight is completed and the data is collected; it might be utilized for guidance during the ight. This student explored several techniques for accomplishing the development of such a tool, and successfully implemented it after careful selection.