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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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M.S. Thesis Defense by:
Amy Rowell
December 6, 2016 8:00am
Knight Building Room 317
Calibrating the Inertial Coordinate System of the Miniature Inertial Measurement Unit on SAGE III ISS
The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) on the International Space Station (ISS) will extend NASA Langley Research Center’s long legacy of satellite atmospheric occultation measurements. Unlike its predecessors, SAGE III ISS will encounter off-nadir attitudes and jitter conditions caused by the mechanical instability of the ISS environment. The retrieval algorithm for the SAGE III science data product requires precise and accurate knowledge of the instrument boresight pointing with respect to Earth and the radiant target, either Sun or Moon. Without knowledge of the attitude drifts at the instrument scan head and the associated mechanical jitter the data retrievals will be compromised. A subsystem on the payload termed the Disturbance Monitoring Package (DMP), which is comprised of a Miniature Inertial Measurement Unit (MIMU) built by Honeywell Aerospace of Clearwater, Florida, was added to quantify this disturbance. By calibrating coordinate transformations on orbit and using attitude determination algorithms, the pointing information needed for post-processing can be derived. This research will provide the necessary calibration methods and simulate the on-orbit mechanical environment to prepare for the SAGE III ISS mission ensuring that the data retrievals maintain the high standard expected of this class of instrument.
Committee Members:
Dr. Alan Wilhite
Dr. Marcus Holzinger
Dr. Joseph Zawodny
