6U CubeSat deployable telescope for optical Earth observation and astronomical optical imaging

Schwartz, Noah; Ali, Zeshan; Brzozowski, W.; Milanova, Maria; Morris, Katherine C.; Bond, C.; Keogh, Jennifer B.; Harvey, Douglas; Bissell, Lawrence; Sauvage, Jean-François; Dumont, Maxime; Bruce, Heather L.; Correia, Carlos; Rees, Phil

doi:10.1117/12.2627248

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The goal of this study was to investigate the AM design freedom for lightweight mirror fabrication, whilst considering and implementing the different stages of manufacture: metal printing, subtractive machining, and single point diamond turning (SPDT). The case study selected was one of the deployable M1 petals of the 6 U nano-satellite ISAAC 29 (Integrated Space Active Optics for Aberration Compensation). The objectives for using AM in this study are:…”

Section: Design Briefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the role of additive manufacturing in the development of astronomical hardware

Atkins,

Chahid,

Wells

et al. 2023

Astronomical Optics: Design, Manufacture, and Test of Space and Ground Systems IV

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Lightweight optical manufacture is no longer confined to the conventional subtractive (mill and drill), formative (casting and forging) and fabricative (bonding and fixing) manufacturing methods. Additive manufacturing (AM; 3D printing), creating a part layer-by-layer, provides new opportunities to reduce mass and combine multiple parts into one structure. Frequently, modern astronomical telescopes and instruments, ground- and space-based, are limited in mass and volume, and are complex to assemble, which are limitations that can benefit from AM. However, there are challenges to overcome before AM is considered a conventional method of manufacture, for example, upskilling engineers, increasing the technology readiness level via AM case studies, and understanding the AM build process to deliver the required material properties. This paper describes current progress within a four-year research programme that has the goal to explore these challenges towards creating a strategy for AM adoption within astronomical hardware. Working with early-career engineers, case studies have been undertaken which focus on lightweight AM aluminium mirror manufacture and optical mountings. In parallel, the aluminium AM build parameters have been investigated to understand which combination of parameters results in AM parts with consistent material properties and low defects. Metrology results from two AM case studies will be summarised: the optical characteristics of a lightweighted aluminium mirror intended for in-orbit deployment from a nanosat; and the AM build quality of wire arc additive manufacture for use in an optomechanical housing. Finally, an analysis of how surface roughness from AM mirror samples and build parameters are linked will be discussed.

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Section: Design Briefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the role of additive manufacturing in the development of astronomical hardware

Atkins,

Chahid,

Wells

et al. 2023

Astronomical Optics: Design, Manufacture, and Test of Space and Ground Systems IV

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For a 10°C temperature difference, the amplitude of the first ones is around 10 micron, the amplitude of the second one is 14 micron (wavefront Pic-to-Valley). If the first contributor can be easily addressed by an AO system as specified in [5], the second one is completely killing the performance of the imager and cannot be corrected. Equation 1shows a very simplified model of the single petal bending, as a parallelepiped volume of dimensions 10x10x1cm 3 .…”

Section: Stop Model Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The high angular resolution requires large optics hence large platforms, whereas the revisit rate requires constellations of multiple satellites and therefore small and affordable platforms. We proposed the concept of a deployable telescope onboard a CubeSat, called AZIMOV [1,3,5], to address this specific gap. Reaching a diameter of 30 cm once deployed, this concept gives access to a meter resolution on the ground from a Low Earth Orbit, or to a 70 cm resolution on Mars surface from a 400 km polar orbit.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Opto-mechanical model of AZIMOV, the deployable telescope for CubeSat

Sauvage

Schwartz

Buron

et al. 2022

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave

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Today, the combination of high angular resolution and high revisit rate is not readily available from space, at least not at a reasonable cost. Many applications in the science, civil or defense domains would benefit from having access to detailed images of the ground as often as possible, in order to study temporal evolutions of specific events. The high angular resolution requires large optics hence large platforms, whereas the revisit rate requires constellations of multiple satellites and therefore small and affordable platforms. We proposed the concept of a deployable telescope onboard a CubeSat, called AZIMOV [1,3,5], to address this specific gap. Reaching a diameter of 30 cm once deployed, this concept gives access to a meter resolution on the ground from a Low Earth Orbit, or to a 70 cm resolution on Mars surface from a 400 km polar orbit. We study in this paper the performance of such a telescope in the aggressive thermal environment of space, with respect to the tight optical requirements of the system.

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“…CubeSat-based space telescopes have been successfully deployed in various astronomical studies, including Earth observation and exploration of celestial phenomena. [2][3][4] The Extragalactic Background Light (EBL), depicted in Figure 1, is the faint glow of electromagnetic radiation that permeates the entire universe. 5 It consists of all light emitted by stars, galaxies, and other cosmic sources throughout cosmic history.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data downlink prioritization using image classification on-board a 6U CubeSat

Chatar,

Felding,

Sano

et al. 2023

Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites XXVII

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Nanosatellites are proliferating as low-cost dedicated sensing systems with lean development cycles. Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) and collaborators have launched a joint venture for a nanosatellite mission, Visible Extragalactic background RadiaTion Exploration by CubeSat (VERTECS). The primary mission is to elucidate the formation history of stars by observing the optical-wavelength cosmic background radiation. The VERTECS satellite will be equipped with a small-aperture telescope and a high-precision attitude control system to capture the astronomical data for analysis on the ground. However, nanosatellites are limited by their onboard memory resources and downlink speed capabilities. Additionally, due to a limited number of ground stations, the satellite mission will face issues meeting the required data budget for mission success. To alleviate this issue, we propose an on-orbit system pipeline to autonomously classify and then compress desirable image data for downlink prioritization and optimization. The system comprises a prototype Camera Controller Board (CCB) which carries a Raspberry Pi Compute Module four which is used for classification and compression. The system uses a lightweight Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model to classify and determine the desirability of captured image data. The model is designed to be lean and robust to reduce the computational and memory load on the satellite. The model is trained and tested on a novel star field dataset consisting of data captured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The dataset is meant to simulate the expected data produced by the 6U satellite. The compression step implements GZip, RICE or HCOMPRESS compression, which are standards for astronomical data. Preliminary testing on the proposed CNN model results in a validation classification accuracy of 100% on the star field dataset, with compression ratios of 3.99, 5.16 and 5.43 for GZip, RICE and HCOMPRESS that were achieved on tested FITS image data.

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6U CubeSat deployable telescope for optical Earth observation and astronomical optical imaging

Abstract: This is a copy of the published version, or version of record, available on the publisher's website. This version does not track changes, errata, or withdrawals on the publisher's site.

Cited by 11 publications

References 7 publications

Understanding the role of additive manufacturing in the development of astronomical hardware

Understanding the role of additive manufacturing in the development of astronomical hardware

Opto-mechanical model of AZIMOV, the deployable telescope for CubeSat

Data downlink prioritization using image classification on-board a 6U CubeSat

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