Session
Flash Talks Session 3
Location
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract
The STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry (STARI) mission is a NASA-funded two spacecraft 8U CubeSat technology demonstrator currently in Phase B designed to advance key capabilities required for future space-based optical interferometers. STARI will demonstrate end-to-end beam transfer by reflecting starlight from one spacecraft to another and injecting the received beam into a single-mode optical fiber when it launches in 2029. Formation flying and transferring starlight at very close proximities (25-200 m) presents GNC challenges such as collision safety, precision position control, and fast, precise beam control. The mission ConOps along with a sophisticated GNC system enables passively safe wide formations in standby orbits and actively safe close formations in science orbits that allow for long dwell times (essentially 100% time on target) in dynamically perturbed Low Earth Orbit environments. Achieving precision position control during the science orbit requires the fusion of differential GNSS and beacon-based relative navigation along with custom-built thrusters that can repeatably provide a minimum impulse bit as low as 2 mNs. Finally, a robust beam control scheme with a fast steering mirror is necessary to compensate for the pointing jitter of a lightweight CubeSat platform. This paper presents the STARI mission architecture, formation-flying and collision-safe concept of operations, and recent progress in optical hardware prototyping and integrated mission simulations. The work outlines the path to demonstrating centimeter-level formation control and precision beam transfer in orbit, enabling the next generation of space interferometry missions.
Document Type
Event
NASA STARI Mission: A Formation-Flying Pathfinder for Space Interferometry
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
The STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry (STARI) mission is a NASA-funded two spacecraft 8U CubeSat technology demonstrator currently in Phase B designed to advance key capabilities required for future space-based optical interferometers. STARI will demonstrate end-to-end beam transfer by reflecting starlight from one spacecraft to another and injecting the received beam into a single-mode optical fiber when it launches in 2029. Formation flying and transferring starlight at very close proximities (25-200 m) presents GNC challenges such as collision safety, precision position control, and fast, precise beam control. The mission ConOps along with a sophisticated GNC system enables passively safe wide formations in standby orbits and actively safe close formations in science orbits that allow for long dwell times (essentially 100% time on target) in dynamically perturbed Low Earth Orbit environments. Achieving precision position control during the science orbit requires the fusion of differential GNSS and beacon-based relative navigation along with custom-built thrusters that can repeatably provide a minimum impulse bit as low as 2 mNs. Finally, a robust beam control scheme with a fast steering mirror is necessary to compensate for the pointing jitter of a lightweight CubeSat platform. This paper presents the STARI mission architecture, formation-flying and collision-safe concept of operations, and recent progress in optical hardware prototyping and integrated mission simulations. The work outlines the path to demonstrating centimeter-level formation control and precision beam transfer in orbit, enabling the next generation of space interferometry missions.
