CubeSat Image Resolution Capabilities with Deployable Optics and Current Imaging Technology

CubeSat Image Resolution Capabilities with Deployable Optics and Current Imaging Technology

Research in attitude determination and control, communications, power, and propulsion of CubeSats are making advances every year. Advancement in these areas of technology are required for CubeSats to be capable of increased resolution imagery. One aspect of CubeSats, and all other small satellites, remains constant: their limited volume. The volume ultimately limits the size of an optical payload. A brief survey of current Earth optical imaging satellites shows the importance of aperture size to obtain the spatial resolution required to achieve mission objectives. The Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) is researching deployable optical apertures in order to overcome the volume constraint on aperture diameter and telescope focal length. To date, SDL has demonstrated successful deployment repeatability of optical mirror segments and metering structures that are capable of supporting high-resolution imagery in the visible spectrum. The paper concludes with a conceptual CubeSat high resolution imager that incorporates deployable optics and current imaging technology.