Practical Limits on Nanosatellite Telescope Pointing: The Impact of Disturbances and Photon Noise

Accurate and stable spacecraft pointing is a requirement of many astronomical observations. Pointing particularly challenges nanosatellites because an unfavorable surface area to mass ratio proportionally large volume required for even the smallest attitude control systems. This work explores limitations on astrophysical knowledge in regime unrestricted by actuator precision or actuator-induced disturbances such as jitter. The external archetypal 6U CubeSat are modeled limiting sensing calculated from available stellar flux grasp telescope within volume. These inputs integrated using model-predictive scheme. For simple test case at 1 Hz, with 85 mm single 11th magnitude star, achievable body predicted be 0.39 arcseconds. more general limit, integrating star light, approximately milliarcsecond, which leads accuracy 20 milliarcseconds after application model. results show significant room systems improve before environmental limits reached.