Deployable Telescope for SmallSats

There is a growing trend in the space industry to use small-scale (< 50kg) spacecraft. These satellites are much cheaper to build and launch than traditional spacecraft (> 500kg) but thanks to the miniaturisation of electronic and mechanical components they can be used for high-quality missions. The downside of these spacecraft is that their reduced launch volume can not directly accommodate a large optical system and the reduced light gathering capacity leads to lower-quality images or scientific data. A promising solution to this issue is the use of a deployable telescope. After the spacecraft has reached its operational orbit, the deployment of the secondary mirror of a Cassegrain telescope increases the light gathering capacity of the telescope by a factor of two. That gain increases the potential of SmallSats for high-quality missions both in science and in services from space, including Earth Observation, astronomy missions and laser communication telecom. The project objective is the development of a high precision deployable telescope on a SmallSat platform.

Keywords:optical telescope, deployment, active vibration suppression

Disciplines:Astronautical engineering