Multi-sensor fusion for fine-guidance and milliarcsecond-level attitude estimation of balloon-borne telescope
Abstract
Balloon-borne telescopes rely on fine-guidance systems to achieve milliarcsecond image stability despite residual disturbances from the balloon environment. In these systems, the Fast Steering Mirror (FSM) stabilizes the image in two focal-plane axes, but leaves systematic, field-dependent residual motion induced by boresight roll. This effect, referred to as roll leakage, becomes more important for wider fields of view. In this work, roll leakage is characterized using data from the 2023 Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) science flight. SuperBIT is a 0.5-m near-ultraviolet to near-infrared telescope that demonstrated milliarcsecond-level image stability during its 45-night science flight. We find that passive focal-plane star-camera measurements correlate strongly with independent roll measurements across a large set of science exposures, showing that boresight roll frequently drives residual focal-plane motion. We then develop a simulation framework combining optical ray tracing, asynchronous guide-star measurements, estimation, and FSM control to study this behavior. The framework is used to compare single-star and multi-star guidance architectures under realistic flight disturbances. For the SuperBIT geometry, we find that multi-star estimation reduces average roll-induced science-field image motion by 31.8%, increasing to 77.4% for a representative geometry of GigaBIT, SuperBIT's planned larger-aperture successor. These results motivate further investigation of multi-star fine-guidance architectures for GigaBIT.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{voyer2026multisensor,
title = {{Multi-sensor fusion for fine-guidance and milliarcsecond-level attitude estimation of balloon-borne telescope}},
author = {Philippe Voyer and Maya Amit and Steven J. Benton and Benjamin E. Boyd and Anthony M. Brown and Giulia Cerini and Paul Clark and Matthew Craigie and Christopher J. Damaren and Tim Eifler and Spencer W. Everett and Aurelien A. Fraisse and Leo W. H. Fung and Ajay S. Gill and Suren Gourapura and Eric Habjan and John W. Hartley and David Harvey and Bradley Holder and Eric M. Huff and Mathilde Jauzac and William C. Jones and David Lagattuta and Gavin Leroy and Jason S. -Y. Leung and Lun Li and Thuy Vy T. Luu and Richard Massey and Jacqueline E. McCleary and Adyn Miles and Johanna M. Nagy and C. Barth Netterfield and Emaad Paracha and Susan F. Redmond and Jason D. Rhodes and Andrew Robertson and L. Javier Romualdez and Sayan Saha and Jürgen Schmoll and Mohamed M. Shaaban and Ellen Sirks and Sut Ieng Tam and Simon Tartakovsky and Georgios N. Vassilakis and André Z. Vitorelli and Bryce Warren and Alfredo Zenteno},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.28816},
eprint = {2607.28816},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.28816},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Multi-sensor fusion for fine-guidance and milliarcsecond-level attitude estimation of balloon-borne telescope
AU - Philippe Voyer
AU - Maya Amit
AU - Steven J. Benton
AU - Benjamin E. Boyd
AU - Anthony M. Brown
AU - Giulia Cerini
AU - Paul Clark
AU - Matthew Craigie
AU - Christopher J. Damaren
AU - Tim Eifler
AU - Spencer W. Everett
AU - Aurelien A. Fraisse
AU - Leo W. H. Fung
AU - Ajay S. Gill
AU - Suren Gourapura
AU - Eric Habjan
AU - John W. Hartley
AU - David Harvey
AU - Bradley Holder
AU - Eric M. Huff
AU - Mathilde Jauzac
AU - William C. Jones
AU - David Lagattuta
AU - Gavin Leroy
AU - Jason S. -Y. Leung
AU - Lun Li
AU - Thuy Vy T. Luu
AU - Richard Massey
AU - Jacqueline E. McCleary
AU - Adyn Miles
AU - Johanna M. Nagy
AU - C. Barth Netterfield
AU - Emaad Paracha
AU - Susan F. Redmond
AU - Jason D. Rhodes
AU - Andrew Robertson
AU - L. Javier Romualdez
AU - Sayan Saha
AU - Jürgen Schmoll
AU - Mohamed M. Shaaban
AU - Ellen Sirks
AU - Sut Ieng Tam
AU - Simon Tartakovsky
AU - Georgios N. Vassilakis
AU - André Z. Vitorelli
AU - Bryce Warren
AU - Alfredo Zenteno
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.28816
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.28816
AB - Balloon-borne telescopes rely on fine-guidance systems to achieve milliarcsecond image stability despite residual disturbances from the balloon environment. In these systems, the Fast Steering Mirror (FSM) stabilizes the image in two focal-plane axes, but leaves systematic, field-dependent residual motion induced by boresight roll. This effect, referred to as roll leakage, becomes more important for wider fields of view. In this work, roll leakage is characterized using data from the 2023 Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) science flight. SuperBIT is a 0.5-m near-ultraviolet to near-infrared telescope that demonstrated milliarcsecond-level image stability during its 45-night science flight. We find that passive focal-plane star-camera measurements correlate strongly with independent roll measurements across a large set of science exposures, showing that boresight roll frequently drives residual focal-plane motion. We then develop a simulation framework combining optical ray tracing, asynchronous guide-star measurements, estimation, and FSM control to study this behavior. The framework is used to compare single-star and multi-star guidance architectures under realistic flight disturbances. For the SuperBIT geometry, we find that multi-star estimation reduces average roll-induced science-field image motion by 31.8%, increasing to 77.4% for a representative geometry of GigaBIT, SuperBIT's planned larger-aperture successor. These results motivate further investigation of multi-star fine-guidance architectures for GigaBIT.
ER -