Efficient Covariance Intersection of Attitude Estimates Using a Local-Error Representation

As the complexity of spacecraft and space systems increases, there is an ever increasing need for more accurate and robust estimators to track the system. While the demand placed on an individual spacecraft is increasing, the spacecraft itself is being pushed towards smaller, independent pieces of hardware which may have limited power and/or computational abilities. One such initiative is often refereed to as Operational Responsive Space (ORS). The primary goal of ORS systems is acceleration of the mission conception-to-launch timeline of spacecraft by means of utilizing off-the-shelf type modular components for construction of the spacecraft. With such modular systems, customized interfacing and software necessary to direct all data to a central processor may not be possible given the accelerated timeline, the unfortunate result of which would be degradation of the estimates due to missing data. Graduate Student, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. E-mail: ckn@buffalo.edu. Student Member AIAA. Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. E-mail: johnc@buffalo.edu. Associate Fellow AIAA. Senior Professional Staff I, SEG, Space Department. Email: adam.fosbury@jhuapl.edu. Member AIAA. Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering. Email: cheng@ae.msstate.edu, Senior Member AIAA.