SPACE MICRO PROPOSES AN INNOVATIVE MINIATURE INTEGRATED STAR TRACKER (MIST) FOR SMALL AND NANOSATELLITE PLA…

Public award description

SPACE MICRO PROPOSES AN INNOVATIVE MINIATURE INTEGRATED STAR TRACKER (MIST) FOR SMALL AND NANOSATELLITE PLATFORMS. PHASE I WORK WILL FOCUS ON RADIATION TESTING AND RAD HARDENING OF MIST UP TO 100 KRAD. ROBUSTNESS TO HIGH RADIATION LEVELS CREATES MORE TOLERANCE TOWARDS FALSE STAR READINGS FROM RADIATION EFFECTS, WHILE ADVANCED COMPUTING OFFERS HIGH OUTPUT QUATERNION RATES OF 30 HZ AND ANGULAR RATES OF 10 DEG/S. MIST UTILIZES A RUGGED CUSTOM OPTICAL LENS FOR ON-ORBIT CALIBRATION OF LESS THAN 1 ARCSEC WITH A DUAL FIELD OF VIEW AND OPTION TO ADD MEMS GYROS. THE PROPOSED IMAGING SENSOR IS THE RUBY CMOS SENSOR FROM E2V, FOR WHICH NO CURRENTLY AVAILABLE RADIATION TEST DATA EXISTS. SPACE MICRO STRIVES TO PROVIDE THAT DATA DURING THIS PHASE I EFFORT USING OUR 25 YEARS OF COMBINED RADIATION EXPERIENCE AND PATENTED RADIATION MITIGATION TECHNIQUES. ONE ADVANTAGES OF CMOS DETECTORS OVER VISIBLE IS A>40% HIGHER QUANTUM EFFICIENCY. FUTURE NASA MISSIONS HAVE A NEED FOR RADIATION TOLERANT STAR TRACKERS THAT CURRENT TECH IS NOT ABLE TO PROVIDE. MIST MEETS THAT NEED WITH A<0.5 KG CUBESAT PACKAGE.