TERMIUM Plus^®

Record 1,  Textual support,  English

Record number: 1, Textual support number: 1 CONT

Inertial Stellar Compass Concept. ISC technology has artificial intelligence capabilities which will keep a spacecraft on course by providing attitude information to keep it stable and pointing accurately. It will also help the spacecraft recover from unexpected events, a temporary malfunction or power loss. To do that, the compass uses information from the camera-gyro assembly (CGA), which consists of two miniaturized devices: a star camera (or star tracker) to tell the spacecraft where it is pointing; gyroscopes to continuously monitor the spacecraft's motion. The gyroscopes also inform the control system how to keep the spacecraft stable and pointed in the right direction in case the camera is "blinded" by the Sun. The information gathered is compared with a large stellar catalog stored in the data processor assembly (DPA). Using a special algorithm the DPA determines the attitude accurately. This way the spacecraft's attitude is maintained correctly.  2, record 1, English, - inertial%20stellar%20compass

Record 1,  Textual support,  French

Record number: 1, Textual support number: 1 CONT

La NASA a signé un contrat avec la société privée Team Encounter pour qu'elle embarque l'expérience ISC (Inertial Stellar Compass) sur sa voile solaire qui doit être lancée en 2004 ou 2005. L'ISC est un système innovant de détermination de l'attitude conçu par le laboratoire Charles Stark Draper de Cambridge [...] L'IST combine une caméra stellaire avec des gyros à Mems.  3, record 1, French, - syst%C3%A8me%20de%20navigation%20ISC

Record 1,  Textual support,  Spanish