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On-orbit performance testing of the Pointing Calibration & Reference Sensor for the Spitzer Space TelescopeWe present the on-orbit performance results of the Pointing Calibration and Reference Sensor (PCRS) for the Spitzer Space Telescope. A cryogenic optical (center wavelength 0.55 mu) imager, the PCRS serves as the Observatory's fine guidance sensor by providing an alignment reference between the telescope boresight and the external spacecraft attitude determination system. The PCRS makes precision measurements of the positions of known guide stars; these are used to calibrate measurements from Spitzer's star tracker and gyroscopes to obtain the actual pointing of the Spitzer telescope. The PCRS calibrates out thermomoechanical drifts between the 300 K spacecraft bus and the 5.5 K telescope. By using only 16 pixels, the PCRS provides high precision centroiding with extremely low (`64 mu W) power dissipation, resulting in minimal impact to Spritzer's helium lifetime. We have demonstrated that the PCRS meets its centroiding accuracy requirement of 0.14 arcsec 1-sigma radial, which represents about1/100 pixel centroiding. The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched in 25 August, 2003 and completed its In-Orbit Checkout phase two months later; the PCRS has been operating failure free ever since.
Document ID
20060043921
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Mainzer, Amanda K.
Young, Erick T.
Swanson, Daniel S.
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
November 21, 2004
Subject Category
Astronomy
Meeting Information
Meeting: International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentiation 2004
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Country: United Kingdom
Start Date: June 21, 2004
End Date: June 25, 2004
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Spitzer
telescope
cryogenic
pointing
optical
centroiding
guidance
infrared

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