Abstract
Accelerometers play a pivotal role in spacecraft navigation, particularly in rendezvous and docking missions, by estimating incremental velocity with precision. This paper presents the on-board performance of an inertial-grade three-axes MEMS accelerometer package that measured the linear acceleration of the spacecraft over its background structural vibration input. Utilizing Hybrid Micro Circuits (HMC) technology for packaging, each axis integrates two in-house fabricated MEMS sensor chips, catering to both fine and coarse range measurements. The paper discusses on the observation of an onboard bias in the output of accelerometer and the reasons for the same and proposes mitigation strategies for future missions. Additionally, the feasibility of leveraging MEMS accelerometers for spacecraft platform vibration measurement is explored. The accelerometer practically achieved exceptional inertial performance with ± 2 µg Noise Equivalent Acceleration (NEA) with a ± 15 mg operating range and an overall accuracy of 10 µg for the fine range sensor. For the coarse range sensor, ± 30 µg NEA is attained with a ± 500 mg operating range and an overall accuracy of 100 µg. This onboard experiment affirms the capability of MEMS accelerometers to assist rendezvous and docking applications in future.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr. K.V.Sriram, Director, LEOS and Smt Kalpana Arvind, (Associate Director, LEOS) for their support and encouragement in the development of Accelerometer. We would also like to thank Sri Elumalai.S, (Former Deputy Director, PSA) for his involvement and suggestions. We also thank Mr., Karantha S.P (Deputy Director, PSA) for his Guidance. In addition, we would like to thank MicroSat2B spacecraft mission & controls team for their support in conducting on-board experiments. We acknowledge the invaluable contributions by MEMS team of LEOS for the successful realization of sensor chips, KHMD Ltd Bangalore for the HMC realization and CPRI for supporting the testing of the package.
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Saxena, G.D., Srinivasa, M.N., Praveena, D. et al. On-orbit performance of high accuracy inertial grade MEMS accelerometer. ISSS J Micro Smart Syst (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41683-024-00123-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41683-024-00123-9