IMAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ATTITUDE DETERMINATION

The subject matter disclosed herein is generally directed towards systems and methods for estimating vehicle attitude information using position data of stars and astronomical objects in the sky. Considerable advantages may be realized by equipping vehicles with low-cost star trackers adequate for filtering images based on statistical-based techniques, which could provide a robust and reliable attitude determination. The methods described herein provide algorithms to reduce the amount of processing capacity and memory for finding stars and astronomical objects. In some instances, the provided systems and methods allow the prediction of the next location of the stars and/or other astronomical objects to enhance the search by looking for them at the predicted location. The algorithms may be applied in real-time and are suitable for movable platforms with limited resources such as satellites and spacecraft.