Autonomous Satellite Location Using a Hand-Held Theodolite

A hand-held theodolite shall be developed which has the capability to autonomously locate satellites, given multiple satellite ephermerides, date, time, and ground terminal location. The theodolite shall provide a local reference of azimuth and elevation angles via electronic sensors, calculate antenna pointing angles for the time during which the satellite is in view, and display the times for which a satellite will be visible. The first phase of this development shall provide detailed system requirements, functional specifications, and a preliminary design approach for the theodolite hardware and software. Brassboard evaluation of the key sensor technologies and processing algorithms shall also be performed in this phase.