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US 11,971,300 B1Granted
Carbon nano-tube polymer composite mirrors for CubeSat telescope
AssigneeUnited States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA
InventorsShahid Aslam, Tilak Hewagama, Nicolas Gorius, Peter C. Chen, Theodor Kostiuk, John R. Kolasinski
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a compact, lightweight, cost-efficient ultraviolet-visible-far infrared (UV-VIS-IR) telescope system, covering the 300 nm to 2500 nm (0.3 μm to 2.5 μm) spectral range, based on a fast focal-ratio, reflective optics design, and an optical coupling interface appropriate for COTS spectrometers, commensurate with about 1U-2U CubeSat payload volume.
Claims12
A CubeSat spacecraft assembly, the spacecraft assembly comprising:
- an off-axis telescope system disposed within a predetermined CubeSat payload volume, said telescope system which is operational in an ultraviolet-visual-infrared (UV-VIS-IR) spectral range spanning from 300 nm to at least 2500 nm, said telescope system including a parabolic primary mirror and a hyperbolic secondary mirror, wherein said telescope system is disposed within a 1U volume,
- wherein said parabolic primary mirror and said hyperbolic secondary mirror are made of a carbon nano-tube polymer matrix composite;
- an aperture disposed in said parabolic primary mirror,
- wherein a plurality of light rays entering said telescope system are incident on said parabolic primary mirror and converged on said hyperbolic secondary mirror, and collected by said aperture of said parabolic primary mirror;
- and
- an electronics subsystem disposed within said predetermined CubeSat payload volume, said electronics subsystem which processes an output from said aperture, wherein said predetermined CubeSat payload volume is no more than 3U.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.