Design, Development and Characterization of a Digital Sun Sensor prototype for Nano Satellite Applications

Abstract: Sun sensors serve as eyes of satellites. It is one of the basic components in satellites used for the purpose of determining the position of the sun in order to properly orient the solar arrays. The technological challenge involved in such sensors is to find the right balance between the field-of-view and the accuracy characteristics. For every sun sensor, there is a trade-off between these two performance parameters which has to be optimized for the expected performance requirements. Developing a low-weight, low-power sun sensorfor nano-satellite applications managing better performance in terms of field-of-view and accuracy is the challenge, this project has accepted to address. The true motivation behind this project was to develop an advanced solar-powered, bluetooth enabled digital sun sensor entitled as Multihead Autonomous Wireless Digital Sun Sensor (MAWDSS). To reach this ambitious goal, the footpath to be followed includes developing a prototype of a digital sun sensor and an autonomous wireless digitalsun sensor leading to the final product. This thesis work lays the first step and proposes a design of a digital sun sensor using low-cost commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, develop a prototype and conduct performance characterization to compare with a commercial benchmarking sun sensor.The desired performance requirements were predefined prior to describing the detailed design aspects of the sun sensor. The problems encountered during experimental testing and the recommended suggestions to overcome them are presented. This thesis defines a complete product development life cycle involving skills from all three aspects of engineering: mechanical, electrical and programming. Each individual regime of the project are properly addressed with relevant figures and plots in separate chapters for the ease of following the report.