High-Altitude Balloon Experiment control system architecture

The High-altitude Balloon Experiment (HABE) is being developed to collect data, validate technologies, and resolve critical acquisition, tracking and pointing (ATP), and fire control issues for future tracking and pointing experiments. The cornerstone of the experiment is the control design architecture mating hardware and software to achieve HABE ATP objectives. This paper discusses the hardware and software components that define the control subsystems followed by their integration into the specific control modes. A discussion of the ATP performance goals, major design issues and implemented solutions in the HABE control mode architecture are also presented. The paper concludes with simulation results taking the HABE platform from open loop pointing to acquire the target within the initial track camera to the point ahead calculations of the marker system to place a beam on the target. The simulation details the expected performance of the HABE tracking system through its mission profile.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.