A GPS/Stellar Attitude Control System for Low-Cost Spacecraft

The area of innovation of this proposal is in cost. We propose to attempt the design of an extremely low-cost spacecraft control and pointing system with, nontheless, high quality pointing accuracy and stability perhaps as good as a few arcseconds. Further we will attempt to design this GN&C system in a way that can be easily adopted by technical communities with small amounts of aerospace infrastructure. The innovative elements of the design, that will lead to a low cost product, come from system engineering design and software design. This innovation is important to NASA in that it will enable the participation of the University community in the space program in a very substantial way. Currently University-class investigators are limited, at best, to supplying an instrument to a government or commercial spacecraft. With this innovation in place, University researchers will have their own access to space with their own spacecraft through NASA's launch programs (e.g. Shuttle HitchHiker and Bantam). This proposal meets affordability, reduced cost, and reduced complexity requirements from section 12.08 of the solicitation.