Shape Measurement of Large Structures in Space: Experiments

Abstract

A method to reconstruct the shape of a large planar structure in space is introduced and demonstrated through a lab-scale experiment. Lightweight sun sensors are distributed on the structure to measure local angles relative to the sun. The methodology to integrate the measured angles into the shape of the structure, based on a decomposition of the shape into basis functions is introduced. This methodology has been implemented on a lab-scale experiment. The design of the sensors is based on a 4 pixel pinhole camera. The calibration method for these sensors is presented as well as the techniques to integrate and communicate with them. A 1.2 m by 20 cm structure was designed and populated with sensors to show the performance of an integrated system. Preliminary results show an accuracy of 1 mm RMS on the shape reconstruction of this structure.

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