ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 19 April. Click Here for more information.
ForumIAS Answer Writing Focus Group (AWFG) for Mains 2024 commencing from 24th June 2024. The Entrance Test for the program will be held on 28th April 2024 at 9 AM. To know more about the program visit: https://forumias.com/blog/awfg2024
Source: The post is based on the article “Indian Institute of Astrophysics researchers develop low-cost star sensor” published in The Hindu on 17th March 2023
What is the News?
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) have developed a low-cost star sensor called Starberry-Sense.
What is a Starberry-Sense?
Starberry-Sense is a low-cost star sensor that can help small CubeSat class satellite missions find their orientation in space.
The brain of the instrument is a single-board Linux computer called Raspberry Pi, which is widely used among electronics hobby enthusiasts.
Significance: Based on commercial/off-the-shelf components, this star sensor costs less than 10% of those available in the market.
What is a Star Sensor?
Any satellite needs to know where it is pointed in space and the instrument used for this purpose is called a star sensor.
The position of stars in the sky is fixed relative to each other and can be used as a stable reference frame to calculate the orientation of a satellite in orbit. This is done by correctly identifying the stars in the sky towards which the star sensor is pointed.
Hence, the star sensor is essentially a celestial compass.
