Implicit Spacecraft Gyro Calibration

Abstract

This paper presents an implicit algorithm for spacecraft onboard instrument calibration, particularly to onboard gyro calibration. This work is an extension of previous work that was done where an explicit gyro calibration algorithm was applied to the AQUA spacecraft gyros. The algorithm presented in this paper was tested using simulated data and real data that were downloaded from the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) spacecraft. The calibration tests gave very good results. A comparison between the use of the implicit calibration algorithm used here with the explicit algorithm used for AQUA spacecraft indicates that both provide an excellent estimation of the gyro calibration parameters with similar accuracies.