Stepping through versatile attitude control system design for stratospheric platforms

In addition to stepping through the typical hardware parts of an Attitude Control System borne for stratospheric platform, the paper describes some fast position sensors. The use of two axis magnetometers at high latitude, even though with a lower accuracy, is analyzed. A high-accuracy motorized sun tracker based on a Position Sensitive Detector photodiode capable of driving the gondola in pointing or scanning mode in any given arbitrary anti-sun direction is also presented. Lastly, as an important part of the entire sensor development project, the paper describes a simulation of the thermal behavior of a pressurized cylinder in which electronic photosensitive devices and a CPU system are housed. To employ electronic device built within a commercial temperature range and intended to stay on the ground, it is extremely important to have a pressurized and conditioned environment in order to avoid a reduction in the performances of some ACS components