A gamma ray observatory ground attitude error analysis study using the generalized calibration system

The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Flight Dynamics Division (FDD) will be responsible for performing ground attitude determination for Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) support. The study reported in this paper provides the FDD and the GRO project with ground attitude determination error information and illustrates several uses of the Generalized Calibration System (GCS). GCS, an institutional software tool in the FDD, automates the computation of the expected attitude determination uncertainty that a spacecraft will encounter during its mission. The GRO project is particularly interested in the uncertainty in the attitude determination using Sun sensors and a magnetometer when both star trackers are inoperable. In order to examine the expected attitude errors for GRO, a systematic approach was developed including various parametric studies. The approach identifies pertinent parameters and combines them to form a matrix of test runs in GCS. This matrix formed the basis for this study.