Commercialising an unfolding, self-aligning CubeSat telescope
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Institute of Astronomy
Abstract
The Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, in partnership with the University spin-out, Super-Sharp Space Systems ltd, will develop an infra-red telescope for use in space to observe the surface of the earth. This camera will use an innovative light-weight, unfolding and self-aligning technology so that the telescope's optics are about 4 times bigger when unfolded than the optics of a conventional telescope. The sharpness of an image taken with any telescope is directly proportional to the size of the telescope's optics. Bigger means sharper so our super-sharp telescope will give images that are 4 times sharper than the current state of the art.
Our unique selling point is that our technology gives much sharper images for a given satellite mission cost. This not only enables lower cost high definition imaging but it also offers lower cost constellations for more frequent viewing of a particular location and it enables high definition thermal infra red imaging from space which can only be done with very large telescopes.
Our telescope will work in the thermal part of the infrared which offers several advantages. 1. things that are warmer than their surroundings appear brighter so the telescope can be used to find or monitor warm things. 2. the telescope will also work on the night side of the earth. 3. the telescope is less affected by cloud cover than telescopes operating at the wavelengths used by the human eye.
Applications include:
1) Monitoring the energy usage of buildings globally to check how governments, companies and individuals are doing with respect to their carbon emission commitments.
2) Early detection of wildfires.
3) Monitoring crops for early detection of water stress and disease.
4) Improved predictions for the financial sector.
5) Detection of illegal fishing.
6) Defence.
7) Management of valuable infra-structure assets (e.g. pipelines and electricity power lines).
Shared application themes are the protection of valuable assets, independent verification of third party reports, night-time surveillance and early warning of change.
The telescope we will develop in this project can be deployed via a 12U CubeSat mission and will see features as small as 7 metres across (compared to 28 metres for a conventional camera in a similarly sized CubeSat). Objects such as houses, aircraft, ships, and large road vehicles will be partially resolved. Livestock and cars will show up as single pixels in the images. The technology can be scaled up in size for use with larger satellite platforms and features as small as 20 cm across will be visible in the thermal infra red when our telescopes are used on the largest satellite platforms which just about fit inside the largest existing rocket fairings.
The technology can also be used at shorter wavelengths and part of our research project will be to learn how to improve the accuracy of the technology by a factor of 20 so that it also gives very high definition images at the same wavelengths that we see with our own eyes. We aim to become the world-leaders in space based high definition telescopes. Currently, there is no commercial company in the world that specializes in high definition space optics.
On the non-commercial side, the technology will also be of great use for astronomy, allowing the astronomical community to have a much larger fleet of space observatories including several as powerful as the Hubble Space Telescope. It will even be possible to have space telescopes for the sole use of schools and colleges. Ultimately, super-sharp telescopes can be used to search a large number of nearby exoplanets for signs of life.
Our unique selling point is that our technology gives much sharper images for a given satellite mission cost. This not only enables lower cost high definition imaging but it also offers lower cost constellations for more frequent viewing of a particular location and it enables high definition thermal infra red imaging from space which can only be done with very large telescopes.
Our telescope will work in the thermal part of the infrared which offers several advantages. 1. things that are warmer than their surroundings appear brighter so the telescope can be used to find or monitor warm things. 2. the telescope will also work on the night side of the earth. 3. the telescope is less affected by cloud cover than telescopes operating at the wavelengths used by the human eye.
Applications include:
1) Monitoring the energy usage of buildings globally to check how governments, companies and individuals are doing with respect to their carbon emission commitments.
2) Early detection of wildfires.
3) Monitoring crops for early detection of water stress and disease.
4) Improved predictions for the financial sector.
5) Detection of illegal fishing.
6) Defence.
7) Management of valuable infra-structure assets (e.g. pipelines and electricity power lines).
Shared application themes are the protection of valuable assets, independent verification of third party reports, night-time surveillance and early warning of change.
The telescope we will develop in this project can be deployed via a 12U CubeSat mission and will see features as small as 7 metres across (compared to 28 metres for a conventional camera in a similarly sized CubeSat). Objects such as houses, aircraft, ships, and large road vehicles will be partially resolved. Livestock and cars will show up as single pixels in the images. The technology can be scaled up in size for use with larger satellite platforms and features as small as 20 cm across will be visible in the thermal infra red when our telescopes are used on the largest satellite platforms which just about fit inside the largest existing rocket fairings.
The technology can also be used at shorter wavelengths and part of our research project will be to learn how to improve the accuracy of the technology by a factor of 20 so that it also gives very high definition images at the same wavelengths that we see with our own eyes. We aim to become the world-leaders in space based high definition telescopes. Currently, there is no commercial company in the world that specializes in high definition space optics.
On the non-commercial side, the technology will also be of great use for astronomy, allowing the astronomical community to have a much larger fleet of space observatories including several as powerful as the Hubble Space Telescope. It will even be possible to have space telescopes for the sole use of schools and colleges. Ultimately, super-sharp telescopes can be used to search a large number of nearby exoplanets for signs of life.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ian Parry (Principal Investigator) |