Session
Pre-Conference Workshop Session 4: Advanced Concepts I - Research & Academia
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
In several decades, space infrared interferometer missions with formation flying have been proposed, but most of the missions were relinquished because their requirements for position and attitude control of satellites are extremely accurate. In order to overcome this issue, we propose to apply the densified pupil spectroscopy to relax control requirements of the baseline distance and attitude to overlap the rays. SEIRIOS is a micro-satellite project to demonstrate the concept of space infrared interferometer with the densified pupil spectrograph. The interferometer is constructed by one 50kg class micro-satellite and two 9U CubeSats in line. The micro-satellite is placed at the center of the two CubeSats that keep a constant distance between 5 to 50-m from the micro-satellite. The CubeSats reflect rays from target celestial bodies to the micro-satellite, and the micro-satellite collects the rays by the pupil spectrometer. The baseline control requirement is 1 mm, and it could be achieved by using COTS laser distance meters, low force thrusters, and the mirror control by piezo stages. This paper introduces the mission concept, a preliminary design result, and the future plan of our interferometer mission.
SEIRIOS: A Demonstration of Space Infrared Interferometer by Formation Flying of Micro-Satellites
Utah State University, Logan, UT
In several decades, space infrared interferometer missions with formation flying have been proposed, but most of the missions were relinquished because their requirements for position and attitude control of satellites are extremely accurate. In order to overcome this issue, we propose to apply the densified pupil spectroscopy to relax control requirements of the baseline distance and attitude to overlap the rays. SEIRIOS is a micro-satellite project to demonstrate the concept of space infrared interferometer with the densified pupil spectrograph. The interferometer is constructed by one 50kg class micro-satellite and two 9U CubeSats in line. The micro-satellite is placed at the center of the two CubeSats that keep a constant distance between 5 to 50-m from the micro-satellite. The CubeSats reflect rays from target celestial bodies to the micro-satellite, and the micro-satellite collects the rays by the pupil spectrometer. The baseline control requirement is 1 mm, and it could be achieved by using COTS laser distance meters, low force thrusters, and the mirror control by piezo stages. This paper introduces the mission concept, a preliminary design result, and the future plan of our interferometer mission.
