DEVICE FOR DETERMINING ORIENTATION OF AN OBJECT BY STARS WITH A SPLIT VIEW FIELD Russian patent published in 2023 - IPC G01C21/24 

FIELD: space technology.

SUBSTANCE: invention can be used for precise timely determination of spacecraft orientation relative to inertial coordinate system associated with fixed stars. The device for determining orientation by stars consists of a star tracker (ST) body, an optical head containing a lens hood, an optical system and a matrix radiation receiver, and an electronics unit. At the same time, the ST scheme is supplemented with a flat wedge installed in the aperture of the optical system using a mount that is attached to the ST housing. The flat wedge is a right triangular prism with mirror reflective surfaces, the bases of which are isosceles triangles, the medians of which are parallel to the axis of sight of the optical head, the length of the edge of the flat wedge, as well as the length and width of its third side surface, which is parallel to the outer surface of the lens hood, must be greater than the diameter of the entrance aperture of the optical head so that all the rays within the field of view of the star tracker intersect with the mirror surfaces of the wedge at a certain ratio.

EFFECT: reduction of the error in determining the angle of intrinsic rotation to a level close to the errors in determining the angles of precession and nutation of the ST with one optical head.

1 cl, 2 dwg