Multispectral Synthetic Aperture Satellite Attitude Sensor System

To address the Air Force need for backup sensor capability for earth pointing and attitude determination, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Multispectral Synthetic Aperture Satellite Attitude (MUSAA) sensor system that fuses data from multiple infrared spectral bands into a synthetic aperture system for accurate location of beacons and/or geographic features. This system consists of an all-reflective telescope coupled to a 6 in. x 6 in. x 4 in. box containing space-qualified electronics and optics. The MUSAA system will achieve earth pointing accuracy better than 1 arc second by implementing the first satellite-based combination of synthetic aperture, multiple distributed beacons, and multispectral imaging. It will have high reliability as a result of sensor and multispectral redundancy, robustness from proprietary POC reflection control, the capability of rejecting spurious signals within the imaging band, automatic gain control, and correction latency of <1 ms in all modes. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of MUSAA by building a theoretical model, fabricating a benchtop prototype, and conducting laboratory testing and evaluation. In Phase II we plan to develop an optimized prototype system with integrated optics, electronics, and software, and will demonstrate real-time earth pointing.