Wallops' engineer Scott Heatwole and team are developing a star tracker with the ability to locate stars during daylight hours.
Under the Wallops Flight Facilities’ Balloon Program, engineer Scott Heatwole and his team are developing a precision attitude sensor or star tracker that would be able to locate points of reference, or stars, during daylight hours. These points of reference serve as landmarks that help orient the instrument so that it can find the target of interest.
The star tracker is being developed specifically for the Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP), which would use the star tracker’s data to point a balloon-borne scientific payload with incredible accuracy and stability. Credits: NASA/Patrick Black