Sun Sensors

AeroAstro's sun sensors have flown successfully on several different spacecraft, including ALEXIS, HETE, MOST, and CHIPSat.

Medium Sun Sensor

AeroAstro’s Medium Sun Sensor is a low-cost, two-axis, medium-resolution sun sensor with years of flight heritage. The sun sensor is comprised of a small housing containing a set of four photodiodes. Calibration data is provided with the sensor, to be stored on the satellite computer for computing sun angle from the four signal outputs obtained from the sensor. The housing for the sensor also serves as the aperture, reducing mechanical complexity, while serving to precisely mask solar light.

The Medium Sun Sensor provides attitude determination in two axes. It has a 134° full-angle conical field of view (FOV) and has an accuracy of ±1° within the inner 60° full-angle FOV. Higher accuracy is available on a custom basis. This small, inexpensive sensor, which requires no power, weighs only 36 grams and is less than 3.5 cm in diameter.

For more information on AeroAstro’s Medium Sun Sensor, please download our product data sheet. [download PDF]

Coarse Sun Sensor

AeroAstro’s Coarse Sun Sensors are very low-cost devices with years of flight heritage. They are designed to provide one-axis of attitude data during such times as separation from the launch vehicle, initial attitude acquisition, emergencies, and off-nominal modes. They can also provide coarse sun vector determination as a backup to higher resolution sensors.

Each sensor contains a single photodiode, and as with the Medium Sun Sensors, the housing for the coarse sun sensor assembly also serves as the aperture. This inexpensive, lightweight sensor (only 20g) draws no power and has an accuracy of better than ±5°.

AeroAstro’s Coarse Sun Sensor Suite is comprised of six Coarse Sun Sensors, each containing a single photodiode. In a typical configuration, one sensor is mounted on each face of the spacecraft (assuming the spacecraft can be roughly approximated as a rectangular prism). The suite of sensors is used in concert, with the attitude control system comparing readings from all six devices to determine the direction of the sun vector.

For more information on AeroAstro’s Coarse Sun Sensor, please download our product data sheet. [download PDF]