Synthesized Aperture Multimodule Adaptive Telescope for Characterization of Resident Space Objects

To address the Air Force need for a new technique for the remote high-resolution imaging and tracking of resident space objects (RSO), Physical Optics Corporation proposes to develop a new Synthesized Aperture Multimodule Adaptive Telescope (SAPMAT). This telescope combines images from several relatively small and inexpensive modules. The lateral shear interferometers in each of these modules provide real-time wavefront testing, so atmospheric blurring is cleaned off the image by post-computing analysis. The telescope receiver operates in time delay integration mode to compensate all RSO movement without fast telescope steering. The SAPMAT offers significant improvements in the spatial resolution in the images of remote RSOs, while featuring a simple optomechanical design, low-cost manufacturing, simple alignment procedure, and the capability to sequentially enhance performance parameters by adding new modules to the already built telescope. In Phase I POC will build a scaled-down laboratory prototype, develop the image retrieval algorithm, and demonstrate prototype performance. In Phase II, a SAPMAT engineering prototype will be built and delivered to the Air Force for demonstration and testing.