Session
Technical Session III: Advanced Technologies II
Abstract
Nanosatellites have gained broad use within the university and scientific communities for a variety of applications ranging from Space Weather, Space Biology and Astrobiology. There is great interest to develop high-quality nanosatellite imaging applications to support Earth Observations, Astrophysics and Heliophysics Missions. NASA Ames Research Center is developing a low cost, deployable telescope that, when coupled with the appropriate imager, will provide high-resolution imaging for Earth and Space Observations. The collapsible telescope design is a Strain Deployable Ritchey Chrétien Cassegrain telescope that can fit within the volume of 1U x 4U portion of a 6U nanosatellite platform. Additional telescope optical prescriptions compatible with the same deployable architecture are being explored. For example, a faster Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain shortens the deployable volume and allows better matching to a slitor integral field unit spectrometer instrument where a modest-sized evenly illuminated field size is a driver. The revised packaging may enable room for field-flattener lenses for imaging applications. Our prototype instrument backend is a remote sensing compact spectropolarimeter with no moving parts, currently under development. The ability to integrate a deployable Cassegrain telescope into a nanosatellite platform matches desires outlined within the TA08 Remote Sensing Instruments/Sensors Technical Area Roadmap and represents game changing technologies in small satellite subsystems to include the potential for swarm missions with distributed apertures.
Presentation Slides
Collapsible Space Telescope (CST) for Nanosatellite Imaging and Observation
Nanosatellites have gained broad use within the university and scientific communities for a variety of applications ranging from Space Weather, Space Biology and Astrobiology. There is great interest to develop high-quality nanosatellite imaging applications to support Earth Observations, Astrophysics and Heliophysics Missions. NASA Ames Research Center is developing a low cost, deployable telescope that, when coupled with the appropriate imager, will provide high-resolution imaging for Earth and Space Observations. The collapsible telescope design is a Strain Deployable Ritchey Chrétien Cassegrain telescope that can fit within the volume of 1U x 4U portion of a 6U nanosatellite platform. Additional telescope optical prescriptions compatible with the same deployable architecture are being explored. For example, a faster Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain shortens the deployable volume and allows better matching to a slitor integral field unit spectrometer instrument where a modest-sized evenly illuminated field size is a driver. The revised packaging may enable room for field-flattener lenses for imaging applications. Our prototype instrument backend is a remote sensing compact spectropolarimeter with no moving parts, currently under development. The ability to integrate a deployable Cassegrain telescope into a nanosatellite platform matches desires outlined within the TA08 Remote Sensing Instruments/Sensors Technical Area Roadmap and represents game changing technologies in small satellite subsystems to include the potential for swarm missions with distributed apertures.
