LED-based attitude reconstruction and back-up light communication: experimental applications for the LEDSAT CubeSat

Marzioli, Paolo; Gianfermo, Andrea; Frezza, Lorenzo; Amadio, Diego; Acernese, Marco; Parisi, Leonardo; Cialone, Giammarco; Pancalli, Maria Giulia; Vestito, Eleonora; Curianò, Federico; Picci, Niccolo; Piergentili, Fabrizio; Santoni, Fábio

doi:10.1109/metroaerospace.2019.8869673

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The identification of satellites can be done by simply pre-programming the LED boards to flash with specifically assigned identifier flash sequences, by verifying a low crosscorrelation among all the sequences utilized by the satellites in the same cluster. For example, different Morse letters can be applied and observed [8,10], or orthogonal patterns [36]. The identification task is mainly addressed at the sidereal rate observation technique, as the satellite TLE will be known with scarce precision and the tasks are addressed at a more precise target trajectory prediction.…”

Section: Spacecraft Early Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the LEDSAT case, LED boards are on all the surfaces, with opposite faces equipping the same diodes color. The LED patterns for attitude determination have been derived from the Gold codes (used for the GPS Pseudo-Random Number, PRN, codes transmitted both in the Coarse Acquisition and in the Precision codes for accurate positioning [36]). These patterns allow to recognize the face pointing towards the observer with even a low percentage of the flashes observed and acquired by the sensor.…”

Section: Attitude Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Usage of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for improved satellite tracking

et al. 2021

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With the increasing number of satellite launches, especially in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), optical tracking can offer a convenient enhancement of tracking precision and availability. Spaceborne active illumination devices, such as LED payloads, can offer a significant improvement to optical observations, extending the observability interval to the whole eclipse time and performing optimized flash sequences for identification, orbit determination, attitude reconstruction or low data rate communication. The main features of LED panels for optical tracking mounted on small satellites platforms (and with particular regards to nano-satellite platforms) are outlined in this paper, along with the description of the design drivers. The analysis of the performance is referred to Sun-Synchronous (at 700 km of altitude) and International Space Station (400 km) orbits, while the ground segment and the optical link budget reference design relies on a standard university space debris observation station architecture. The paper also outlines the advantages of using different observation techniques and the variety of flashing patterns. The LEDSAT 1U CubeSat, aiming at demonstrating the effectiveness of an LED-based payload for observation and tracking, is used as a study case for examples of the LED payloads and related operations that are reported and described in this paper.

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Section: Spacecraft Early Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Attitude Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Usage of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for improved satellite tracking

et al. 2021

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“…In recent years, the Sapienza Space System and Space Surveillance (S5Lab) gained experience in satellite systems manufacturing and launches, and in the space debris field [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], operating networks [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] of completely remote optical observatories, which are able to observe, catalogue and identify a huge number of objects both known that unknown, thanks to which it was possible to refine the correlation between light curves and attitude dynamics of the observed debris. For these reasons, every methodology discussed in this paper is strongly based on a great number of observations, which makes it possible to obtain reliable and solid results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEO Object’s Light-Curve Acquisition System and Their Inversion for Attitude Reconstruction

et al. 2020

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In recent years, the increase in space activities has brought the space debris issue to the top of the list of all space agencies. The fact of there being uncontrolled objects is a problem both for the operational satellites in orbit (avoiding collisions) and for the safety of people on the ground (re-entry objects). Optical systems provide valuable assistance in identifying and monitoring such objects. The Sapienza Space System and Space Surveillance (S5Lab) has been working in this field for years, being able to take advantage of a network of telescopes spread over different continents. This article is focused on the re-entry phase of the object; indeed, the knowledge of the state of the object, in terms of position, velocity, and attitude during the descent, is crucial in order to predict as accurately as possible the impact point on the ground. A procedure to retrieve the light curves of orbiting objects by means of optical data will be shown and a method to obtain the attitude determination from their inversion based on a stochastic optimization (genetic algorithm) will be proposed.

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