Development of Integrated Simulation Tool for Jitter Analysis

Abstract

Pointing stability of high precision observation satellites must satisfy the stringent requirements to perform at a designed level. As even a small vibrational disturbance can result in severe degradation of the optical performance, the effects of in-orbit vibrational environment on the performance of optical payload must be predicted and analyzed in the design phase in order to ensure that the requirements imposed on the payload are fully met. In this paper, an integrated framework for the evaluation of the performance of optical payloads is developed. The developed simulation tool comprises of the reaction wheel induced disturbance model, state space model of a structure in modal form and Cassegrain reflector model. The performance degradation of the optical system due to jitter is expressed by using modulation transfer function (MTF) and image simulation. Moreover, vibration isolator model is also added to show the effectiveness of using a vibration isolator for the elimination of the effects of jitter in the acquisition of an image.