In the summer of 2021, I worked on attitude determination as a part of GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control).
I contributed to a low-cost, high performance "star tracker" that provides attitude determination for spacecraft.
My work involved heavy troubleshooting in Python as well as hardware selection, integration, and design with a tight budget.
The premise of the program was to create a star tracker that is affordable for low cost crafts. Current star trackers at NASA cost in the range of $100,000. For some craft such as CubeSATs or smaller surveillance craft, this budget range is out of reach.
My contributions helped bring about the internal release of the latest star tracker project, suitable towards an iteration of the "Seeker" small surveillance craft.