ADVANCES IN PRECISION
POINTING CONTROL FOR
THE NASA SPITZER SPACE
TELESCOPE
David S. Bayard [1]
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109
This presentation
discusses the pointing control system for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (SST).
The SST was launched in August 2003, and was commissioned in December 2003. The
Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly SIRTF) is an infrared space telescope that is
the last in NASAÕs Great Observatory series. This well-known series includes
the Hubble Space Telescope for the visible frequencies, AXAF (Chandra) for
X-ray, and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) for gamma rays.
In general, space
telescopes present a major challenge for precision pointing control. The SST pointing control system
achieves arcsecond-level pointing accuracy and sub-arcsecond pointing jitter
while supporting a broad range of payload instrument requirements and science
observing modes. The SST carries three science payload instruments: the
Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) and the
Multi-band Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS). Each science instrument
brings its own unique set of constraints and challenges. After an introduction
to the SST mission, telescope and science instruments, an overview is given of
the SST pointing control system. Discussion is focused on the pointing control
hardware, architecture, pointing requirements and capability, attitude
constraints/commanding, attitude observers, and required calibrations. Novel
aspects of the pointing control system design will be highlighted and the most
recent assessments of in-flight performance will be provided.
3:30 Ð 4:30 p.m.
[1] Senior Research Scientist, MS 198-326, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA, 91109, E-mail: david.bayard@jpl.nasa.gov. Phone: (818) 354-8208, FAX: (818) 393-4440.