Highly Precise Pointing Control System on a Balloon-Borne Telescope for Optical Observations of Planets

Yasuhiro SHOJI; Tomoya ONISHI; Steve BATTAZZO; Tomoko TERAGUCHI; Atsushi YOSHIMURA; Yuji SAKAMOTO; Yukihiro TAKAHASHI; Kazuya YOSHIDA; Makoto TAGUCHI

doi:10.2322/tastj.8.Pm_15

m) Scientific Observations and Related Technologies

Highly Precise Pointing Control System on a Balloon-Borne Telescope for Optical Observations of Planets

Yasuhiro SHOJI, Tomoya ONISHI, Steve BATTAZZO, Tomoko TERAGUCHI, Atsushi YOSHIMURA, Yuji SAKAMOTO, Yukihiro TAKAHASHI, Kazuya YOSHIDA, Makoto TAGUCHI

Author information

Yasuhiro SHOJI
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tohoku University
Tomoya ONISHI
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tohoku University
Steve BATTAZZO
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tohoku University
Tomoko TERAGUCHI
Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University
Atsushi YOSHIMURA
Department of Science, Rikkyo University
Yuji SAKAMOTO
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tohoku University
Yukihiro TAKAHASHI
Department of Earth Science, Hokkaido University
Kazuya YOSHIDA
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tohoku University
Makoto TAGUCHI
Department of Science, Rikkyo University

Keywords: Balloon Borne Telescope, Precise Pointing Control, Venus Observation, Control Moment Gyro, Tip-tilt Mirror

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2010 Volume 8 Issue ists27 Pages Pm_15-Pm_20

DOI https://doi.org/10.2322/tastj.8.Pm_15

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Abstract

A balloon borne telescope is one of the space observation methods by carrying a telescope to the stratosphere with a huge balloon in order to be free from the atmospheric influences on observations. The authors have been developing a balloon borne telescope system for optical observations of other planets in the solar system. The observation aimed to achieve finer images of the planets than those taken by ground telescopes, which required the balloon borne telescope to hold the target star with subarcsec precision during the exposure of the camera. To meet the requirement, the system is equipped three stage pointing system. This article introduces the overview of the flight campaign and the flight system, and reports the pointing performance verified in ground experiments.

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