FS5 sun exposure survivability analysis

Abstract

During the Acquisition and Safe Hold (ASH) mode, FORMOAT-5 (FS5) satellite attitude is not fully controlled. Direct sun exposure on the Remote Sensing Instrument (RSI) satellite telescope sensor may occur. The sun exposure effect on RSI sensor performance is investigated to evaluate the instrument’s survivability in orbit. Both satellite spin speed and sun exposure duration are considered as the key parameters in this study. A simple radiometry technique is used to calculate the total sun radiance exposure to examine the RSI sensor integrity. Total sun irradiance on the sensor is computed by considering the spectral variation effect through the RSI’s five-band filter. Experiments that directly expose the sensor to the sun on the ground were performed with no obvious performance degradation found. Based on both the analysis and experiment results, it is concluded that the FS5 RSI sensor can survive direct sun exposure during the ASH mode.